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The Valentine’s mystery of a 125-year-old love letter
By Tim Barlass
A love letter written 125 years ago has surfaced in a job lot auction of old postcards and has prompted a call from the State Library to help build a better picture of the romantic couple.
A Sydney-based collector of ephemera bid on the box of postcards from the early 20th century without inspecting them. He won the auction and discovered under the cards the love letter which has all the romance of a Valentine’s Day card.
A love letter hand written and hand illustrated by Norman Tayler.Credit: State Library
In 1899, Norman Standen Tayler, aged 21, was apprenticed to the British shipping company Devitt & Moore, which transported passengers and wool between London and Sydney.
Before leaving on the ship Macquarie, he made a promise to sweetheart Catherine Vanston Ferris, aged 20, who lived in Waverley.
He pledged to write an account of the voyage for her, creating what he called a “nautical romance”, which he would post on arrival in London.
Tayler writes to Ferris of the miseries of the voyage, the gales, the ice, the terrible cold. But throughout it all, thoughts of Catherine sustain him.
Alice Tonkinson with the 30-page 125-year-old love letter written and illustrated by Norman Tayler to sweetheart Catherine.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Alice Tonkinson, librarian in the acquisition and curation department at the State Library of NSW, received the letter donated by the collector. She said Norman ends each entry to Catherine wishing her good night and rows of kisses.
“I see it is a love letter that has been so exquisitely and lovingly produced, his feelings for her are so evident in how he has crafted this for her,” she said.
“He writes poetry in beautiful cursive script and includes lots of little illustrations. He often says things like ‘I wonder what you are doing now’. He is constantly thinking about her throughout this quite horrendous voyage.”
Norman writes in one entry: “I wonder how my little sweetheart is getting on at Yarrundi [her home in Waverley]. Do you think I have forgotten you kiddie? You make a great mistake if you do.”
A sketch in the 125-year-old love letter believed to depict Norman giving flowers to Catherine at her Waverley home.Credit: State Library NSW
On another entry: “So darling look at this letter for what it is, really a token of my undying and never-ending love for a certain little girl in Woollahra.”
And another: “How I wish I could be with you now, however I will retire to my pew and think about you, dream about you, so good night dearest, xxx”
The “journal letter” concludes in March 1899, not long before the Macquarie would reach England.
Tonkinson was able to find through records of births, deaths and marriages that the couple got married in Sydney 10 years later and lived in Ryde and North Sydney.
An extract from the 125-year-old love letter.Credit: State Library NSW
“We know that they had two daughters, Betty and Mary, and that Catherine died in 1942,” she said. “We would love to learn anything that can add to the story. We don’t have anything written by Catherine or any pictures. It is a real mystery about how they met.”
The library is appealing for surviving family members to come forward to help provide more information and hopefully unearth more letters.
Norman Tayler in a photograph supplied by his great-granddaughter to the Herald.
The Herald asked Brad Argent, family history expert at the genealogy website ancestry.com if he could discover anything further. He replied with a Facebook link to a woman called Lucy Killick in the US. He said: “This person is likely the great-granddaughter of Norman and Catherine.”
Killick, in Spain, responded with a photo of Norman showing the same distinctive square jaw as seen in his illustration in the love letter.
She wrote: “I believe these are my mother’s grandparents. I have attached some photos relevant to Norman, aka ‘Skipper’, including a picture of him as a young sailor, his birth certificate and the birth certificate of my grandmother (Norman’s daughter). My mother has these in her important family files.”
The one part of the jigsaw still missing is a picture of Catherine. Can you help?