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.
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”.
“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”.
“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.”
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
