Looking Back...

Vintage Postbag

Sir,

The enclosed copies of postcards might be of interest to both yourself and your readers. They were in my family album and I have copied the postcards and have a duplicate net of she negatives, if anybody would be interested in having them.

The postcards were all dated 1910, and the de Dion Bouton was driven by a Captain Fawcett. According to my mother’s memory he was lost at sea when flying. My mother was insistent that it was the first car up the Alps, but never mentioned how far up it went.

Apparently my mother and her sister were spending some of my aunt’s inheritance in the south of France, where they met the Fawcetts. He invited them both along — probably to add more pushing power for the climb! — and mother’s most vivid memory is of having a burnt posterior when sitting on one of the running boards! The oval photograph was taken outside the hotel at the start of the trip and the other two were obviously taken when the car was following attack, next to a water pipe, while ascending the Alps. The information I have is scanty, but it might bring a response from someone who knows something of Captain Fawcett’s background.
Pretoria. S. Africa
ROGER MADDEN