“Maurice, Flintham, England.”

[noggin1969]

http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/artic ... al-prowess

A recollection of a childhood memory led to a Flintham resident receiving postcards from across the world.
Mr Maurice Rushby, 80, at home in Flintham with the postcards sent from abroad with only vague address details.
Mr Maurice Rushby, 80, of Woods Lane, has so far received four postcards — the furthest from Dubai.

Each one arrived through his letter box despite having the barest of address details — “Maurice, Flintham, England.”

The first was sent from France by fellow villagers who heard Mr Rushby talking in the village pub, the Boot and Shoe Inn, about Captain Ludlow Maltby, who once lived at Flintham House.

Captain Maltby was in the Merchant Navy during the second world war and regularly sailed between England and Australia.

Mr Rushby was a pupil at Flintham School when Captain Maltby gave a talk to the children one day in 1942.

Despite it being nearly 70 years ago, Mr Rushby remembers Captain Maltby talking about sending cables home from Australia to let his family know his ship was leaving for England.

The only details he wrote were “Maltby, Flintham, England” and the time of his departure.

Mr Rushby said Captain Maltby was confident that the cable would get to his family because there was only one Flintham in England.

Inspired by the story, the postcard from France took seven days to arrive at Mr Rushby’s home, although a member of the sorting office had written NG on it to help it on its way.

A couple from New Zealand staying at the Boot and Shoe heard about the postcard and were intrigued as to how it found Mr Rushby so quickly with so few details.

They agreed to send Mr Rushby a postcard with the same limited address when they arrived in Madrid, Spain, soon after. It took just two days to arrive.

When the couple visited Morocco they wrote another postcard but could not find a postbox so had to take it back to Spain to post it. That time it took three days to arrive.

They then sent a card from Dubai, which Mr Rushby said took no more than three days, although he could not read the Arabic to find out the exact time.

Others have heard about his growing collection of postcards and he has since been promised one from Australia and three from America.

He said: “All I’m trying to prove is how great the postal service we have is. It is absolutely terrific.”

Postmen are helped by the fact that Mr Rushby, who has lived in Flintham all his life, is well known in the village and, he says, the only person called Maurice.