Published: Wednesday, 3rd September, 2008 4:00pm

Retro: US mystery

by David Cliffe

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I AM afraid it has taken the library more than 11 years to find the answer to a question posed by a lady in North Carolina in the USA.

Her letter went in the first place to the Museum. When they failed to recognise the building, the library had a try, and also failed.

If I'd been writing this column at the time, and sent in this picture, we'd doubtless have had the answer within a week!

The lady's husband, as a boy, had undergone an operation in St Thomas' Hospital in London, and had been sent to a children's home to recuperate.

The lady thought that the home was actually in Reading, which was probably what threw everyone off the scent.

With her letter, there were a number of photographs - pictures of the Matron, Miss Ellen K Pantin, the Assistant Matron, Miss Alice L Coombe, the children and the pet animals they had to play with. In fact, everyone looks happy in the photographs, and the home looks well run.

The letter came to light again when I was sorting out some old correspondence, with a view to throwing most of it away.

I was stopped in my tracks when I glanced at the pictures, and recognised the building at once as St Luke's Home for Sick Children, in Headley Road, Woodley.

Fortunately, it isn't long since I was cataloguing all of the library's photographs of Woodley.

This particular photograph from the batch sent from North Carolina was taken on October 14, 1908, the day that Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein came to visit St Luke's.

She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and after her visit to Woodley, she went on to Holme Park at Sonning, then the home of Martin Sutton, and now, of course, the home of Reading Blue Coat School.

I am afraid that my letter may arrive too late for the lady in North Carolina, but now, at last, I can catalogue those photographs, which may well be the only copies now in existence - unless, of course, Retro readers know of any more?

- Contact Retro on 0118 963 3152 or email news@readingchronicle.co.uk