Looking for Margaret Hale of Peasedown St.John, near Bath - Tracing local resident to solve intriguing mystery

To whom it may concern.

  Everyone likes a mystery, a series of events or coincidences which don’t add up or make sense.

  Well here’s such a mystery concerning the names and addresses written by somebody in the flyleaf of a book recently discovered by a family in Florida, USA. Not unusual, one might argue but when one of the names happens to be that of a relative back in the UK, the stranger things become.

  The book concerned is ‘Jenning’s Little Hut’ by Anthony Buckeridge, published in the 1950’s and it was found by a lady in a collection of children’s books she had accumulated in her (almost) thirty years of life in the United States since she and her husband emigrated there. The book had been carried to the USA and across the many moves she, her husband and children made during their time there.

  The big surprise is that on recently opening the book she was astounded to find  that one of the names written in the book is that of her husband’s uncle who lived at an address in Knowle, Bristol until he was married in the early 1960’s.

Sadly, and quite coincidentally, the said uncle Ron recently passed away at his home in Poole, Dorset where he had lived for over forty-five years. There was virtually no contact between them during the intervening time.

Additionally, a second name was written in the book, that of Margaret Hale of Eckweek Road, Peasedown St.John, near Bath with a further small notation ‘Margaret 3rd March’ at the bottom of the page.

The belief amongst the ageing Bristol family members is that Ron may have won the book as a prize during his days as a cub-scout at St.Barnabas Church in Daventry Road, Knowle, probably when he was about ten or eleven years of age. This would coincide with the publication date of the book and the time that he was still living at the family home in Knowle. What is difficult to understand is the connection to Margaret Hale and the reason for a second name to appear in this way if in fact it was a prize or gift of some kind. It is believed that Margaret Hale wrote the addresses since the script is more attributable to a more mature female hand than that of a young boy.

Unfortunately, Ron’s recent death has denied clarification by him (if he remembered) of the circumstances and the families are intrigued to resolve the mystery which has now crossed the Atlantic in such an extraordinary way.

There is no suggestion of anything wrong or any impropriety in this true story, but anyone thinks they might have the solution or details of the whereabouts of Margaret Hale I would be pleased to receive any information. The letter I wrote to Margaret herself has been returned by Royal Mail ‘addressee unknown’ with one or two comments written on the envelope to indicate that the postman tried several other options before formally returning the letter.

Please contact me via the Forum and I will acknowledge all replies. The information relayed to me will be treated with total confidentiality. If the mystery is eventually solved, I will be able to fill in the detail I have had to omit from this article, for obvious reasons.

Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help.