Carol Hatter (75) says her husband, John (80), is the nephew of John Stapleford, who wrote the note while in the Island in September 1938. It was found on Tuesday by 55-year-old Nigel Hill while he was walking his labrador, Reggie, on the beach at Bel Royal.
Mrs Hatter said that Mr Stapleford, who was known as Jack to his friends and family, was in the Island with his wife, Nell, for the wedding of Nell’s brother, Cecil Hatter, and Muriel Larbalestier at St Luke’s Church – the married couple were Islander John Hatter’s parents. Muriel was born in Jersey and grew up at Havre des Pas.
The note was written on the back of an old cake box from Cawley Bros Ltd, which was once based in Halkett Street. It was found inside a ‘Smith’s’ glass bottle. The bottling plant closed in 2003.
Mr Stapleford’s note urged the finder to reply to it by sending a message and photograph to his address at the time in Barnet, Hertfordshire. The woman who now lives in the property confirmed from the property deeds that Mr Stapleford had bought the home in 1921.
Various Islanders jumped at the chance to help uncover the story behind the message, including music director Phil Le Cheminant, who trawled birth, marriage, death and travel records to uncover key details.
The Islander found that Mr Stapleford was was born on 4 August 1889 and had worked as a civil servant and chief accountant for Customs and Excise in England. He found that he had a wife called Nell and that Mr Stapleford died on 2 December 1980, aged 91. His address then was in Norfolk.
It was these key details that Mrs Hatter said led her and her husband to realise that John Stapleford was their relative known as Jack.
‘I heard the tale on the radio and thought it was funny that they were talking about someone with a similar name to Jack. But then we read more details in the Jersey Evening Post and that’s when it started to drop. In those days people called John were quite often known as Jack.
‘My husband’s aunt is Nell, who married Jack [John] Stapleford. It’s true he was a civil servant and worked for Customs and Excise. By the time my husband, who was born in 1939, was a young person Jack [John] Stapleford had gone to live in Herne Bay, Kent, with his wife. We used visit them down in Kent.’
Mrs Hatter added that Mr Stapleford had two adopted children – Tony and Joyce. She said: ‘Tony was a master mariner, but I think he may have passed away now. I think Tony did have children. He
lived in Norwich in Norfolk.’
Mr Le Cheminant – who described himself as a ‘Google ninja’ – said he had always had an interest in research, having once studied a correspondence course in private investigation. It was his day off on Tuesday, he said, and the tale of the message in a bottle piqued his interest.
During the course of his research into Mr Stapleford, Mr Le Cheminant signed up to free trials on various genealogy websites and dug out some key details.
‘One point that is interesting, but a bit unrelated, was that Mr Stapleford, it appears, went on a six-month trip to America in 1934 with Thomas Edmond-Smith. Tom appeared to sail out without a partner but sailed back with his wife, Marjorie.’
