Times Colonist readers have helped solve the mystery surrounding a boy who wrote a melancholy postcard to Santa almost 100 years ago.
Charlie Wilson was just a boy in 1920, when he penned the postcard from Lethbridge, Alta. He told St. Nick that it would be his first Christmas apart from his father, who was in Victoria.
The Times Colonist published a story April 23 about Esquimalt man John Roberts, who found the postcard and hoped to return it to one of Wilson’s descendants.
“I’ve been fascinated by the enormous response from readers,” Roberts said. “And it does seem that the information provided from nearly everyone is very accurate, because it blends in with other responses.”
Roberts believes they have correctly identified Charlie Wilson as an accountant who grew up on Cadboro Bay Road and moved to a house on Beach Drive with his wife, Bessie.
He was born to Janet Wilson (nee Duff) from the Scottish highlands and Ernest C. Wilson, a civil engineer who immigrated to Canada from England in 1903. Charlie was an only child.
He went to school at Shawnigan Lake Boys School and the University of British Columbia. He and Bessie, who predeceased him, had no children.
As for why Charlie was separated from his father on Christmas: “In 1920, the Wilsons had been living with Mrs. Wilson’s sister in Lethbridge ... until a home was found in Victoria,” wrote Qualicum Beach resident Gwen McComas, who believes Charlie Wilson was her husband’s second cousin.
Roberts said those who contacted him all spoke highly of Charlie Wilson.
“He was held in high esteem in the community, it seems. Everyone spoke fondly of Charlie Wilson,” Roberts said.
The identification of Charlie Wilson also meant a case closed for another local genealogy hobbyist. Sherri Robinson, a volunteer archivist at the Esquimalt Municipal Archives, had been looking for information about Wilson since 1995.
“As soon as I saw ‘Charlie Wilson’ [in the paper], I knew exactly who they were talking about,” she said.
Robinson has made a project of identifying the families represented in a group of old photos found and passed on to her nearly 20 years ago. The Wilson family was one of them.
As for Roberts, who has a hobby of finding antique photo albums and returning them to their owners’ descendants, he’s taking a break.
Roberts has already returned five family photo albums to families as far away as England, Austria and Eastern Canada.
He does have one in the works — two albums filled with 482 postcards that he has contacted 17 members of the Rothschild family about.
If he receives a positive response, he’ll proceed.
“Other than that, I’m putting everything to do with photographs and postcards on the back burner until summer’s over,” he said. “It’s a winter hobby.”
