‘Magic’ – Butler’s lost postcards from the 1920s reunited with family

The family of a globe-trotting butler who mingled with royalty have said it was a stroke of “magic” after they were reunited with postcards he wrote in the 1920s.

Frank Hills died in 1962, but spent the majority of his working life as either a valet – a personal attendant – or a butler for various affluent people.

As a valet, he got to visit Egypt during the period that King Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered, in 1922.

The postcards which were reunited with Liz Parham and her daughter (family handout/PA)

A series of eight postcards documenting his travels while on a grand tour in the 1920s, and addressed to his wife and baby daughter, ended up at an antiques fair on the Isle of Wight, seemingly lost to time.

However, Jim Rayner, 50, who set up a Facebook group called the Forgotten Messages Project – to reunite families with postcards, bought them for £15 as part of a bundle.

After tracing Laura Parham, Mr Hills’ great granddaughter, he sent the postcards to the family on December 28, which she described as a “late Christmas present”.

Frank Hills with his wife Constance next to a letter he wrote to her (family handout/PA)

Ms Parham, 44, who lives in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and works in the food industry, told the PA news agency: “It was Christmas Eve and I found a message from Jim that had been sat in my Facebook Messenger junk messages for six months, so it was sort of magic that I’d stumbled across this message.

“Jim gave us lots of information and sent the postcards to us, which was great.”

Liz Parham, who is Ms Parham’s mother and the granddaughter of Mr Hills, has stored the postcards in a folder at her home in Sonning Common, Oxfordshire.

The 72-year-old lived with Mr Hills for several years growing up, and said he was “reserved”.

Some of the messages on the postcards (family handout/PA)

“I lived in a family home with with my parents, sisters and grandparents and so I lived with Frank until he died,” she told PA.

“I believe he died in 1962, mum and dad moved into the house in 1949 and I was born in 1952.

“He wasn’t a very chatty person, but he would always play with us and would be very kind and I knew that he worked under Sir Charles Cust and travelled with him to places like Egypt.

“I suppose because of his job, he was always quite quiet and reserved.”

Frank Hills (family handout/PA)

The postcards provided a glimpse into some of the countries toured by Mr Hills including Monte Carlo and Lake Como in Italy, and included messages about his travels and how much he missed his family.

Ms Parham and her mother have visited both these locations, which they said has helped them to feel a deeper connection to their late relative.

“We all like to travel in our family and it’s almost as if we are linked through his travels too,” Ms Parham added.

Mr Rayner, who works as a compliance officer at Cherry Godfrey – a financial services company, also sent the family a newspaper clipping about their late relative.

The postcards were found at an antiques fair in the Isle of Wight (family handout/PA)

It revealed he was something of a hero when a fire occurred at a home he was working at, while a butler.

“In 1949, he was at Seagry House, working under Lady Cowley and there was a fire at that house and and unfortunately, she lost her life, but he was a hero,” Mr Rayner told PA.

“He ran back into the burning building and saved other people.”

Mrs Parham said it would have been “nice” if her grandfather was alive to see the postcards again.

Liz Parham and her daughter have been to Monte Carlo, as has Frank Hills (family handout/PA)

“It would be nice if he got the accolade for having done these amazing things as he was always just happy in the background,” she added.

“We also have some stag antlers that were given to him by George V, I think it was, when he was present on a shooting trip in Scotland.”

Mr Rayner said when he uncovered more about Mr Hills’ story, it “blew me away”.

He said he – and other members of his Facebook group – were able to figure out Mr Hills was the writer of the postcards using census data and his marriage register.

Jim Rayner with his dog called Thearle (Jim Rayner/PA)

“The detectives (members of the group) realised this was turning into quite a story and pulled out all the stops,” he added.

“After some great leads including a possible link to the Mountbattens, admin Denise, one of our star detectives, traced three grandchildren through an ancestry site and found a name that we ran through Facebook and it matched the profile of Laura.”

He said it was “really joyful” to be part of the story’s happy ending.

“Postcards were the text messages of their day,” he added.

“It’s like being handed a movie script every day – that’s what I love about logging into the site and having a look at what’s going on.”