Time again to throw the page over to your letters and emails, and I must at the outset thank everyone who bothers to write in. It’s always good to hear your views – especially if you’re adding extra information – and it’s also always good to know there are people out there reading!

We start with Frank Chester, the one-armed cricket umpire who appeared in the column on September 19.

You may recall that I’d had a letter from a Barry Darsley, of Whitchurch, near Aylesbury. He wrote in the wake of both the commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War and the close of the cricket season. “I hope to draw the two together,” he wrote.

Frank Chester made his first class debut for Worcestershire at 17 years of age. It was predicted he would play for England but in 1914, he joined the army and was injured, losing most of his  right arm. After the war he became a first class umpire and between 1924 and 1955 was present at 48 test matches.

“Sir Don Bradman said he was the best umpire he had ever seen and Sir Jack Hobbs said Frank would have been a great England all-rounder had it not been for the war,” wrote Mr Darsley, adding, almost as an afterthought: “Frank travelled around the cricket grounds on a specially adapted motorbike.”

With his letter, Mr Darsley enclosed a picture showing Mr Chester about to sign Mr Darsley’s programme at a charity match in Abbots Langley around 1949 or 1950.

Since then, I’ve had contact from Frank Chester’s granddaughter, Jane Read. And it was one particular part of the article that interested her.

She wrote: “I was most interested to read your piece concerning my grandfather, Frank Chester.

“Your correspondent has fairly accurately described Frank’s early cricket career at Worcester and the loss of his arm during the Great War.

“What is new to me is the assertion that Grandpa travelled around on an adapted motorbike! If true, I’m sure this would have been known to me having been passed down through family lore. However, this is the first I have ever known of such a thing and will be very interested to know from where Barry Darsley had this information!”

Well, Mr Darsley; back to you. Perhaps you could write again with more?

Another picture which prompted an interesting response was that printed the following week, September 26, of W.A. Reilly holding his excellent painting, made from a photograph, of the Watford Fire Brigade returning from a call to Hunton Bridge in 1910. (To see the picture, click HERE)

It was originally published in the Watford Observer of September 15, 1967, when the caption read: “Mr Reilly is presenting the picture to the brigade for their new headquarters at Hertford where, with other articles given to the brigade over the years, it will help to presrve the links with the past and illustrate the great advances made in equipment and fire fighting techniques.”

Roger Middleton, curator of the Herts Fire Brigade Museum, wrote to say he’d found some more information about the picture.

“The pump was returning from a test run to Hunton Bridge, which they managed to do in 11 minutes flat,” he said. “The crew are, from left to right, Second Officer Graham Neill, Fireman Richard Wise, Fireman William Hilliard, Fireman Charles Crawford, Chief Officer Ralph Thorpe, Fireman Daniel Fountain, Fireman Richard Hatton and Fireman Alfred Heath.

“The two horses pulling the steamer were Tommy and Molly, and it cost £362 10s. when purchased in 1900.

“The painting depicts the steamer at a point 200 yards north of the ‘Dog’ public house which was in Hempstead Road just this side of Little Cassiobury (Registry Office).

“All the crew were council employees except the Chief Officer and Fireman Wise. Perhaps there are some relatives of the ‘old boys’ out there who have some information to add to the above?”

If so, Mr Middleton can be contacted either through the Watford Museum website or via Nostalgia.

A bit of a long shot next. Back in 2010, my colleague and former Nostalgia writer Mike Pickard wrote a story concerning a mystery postcard.

He wrote: “When Elizabeth Spicer collected her post, she didn’t notice the faded postcard lying among the bundle of envelopes. It wasn’t until she noticed King George V looking at her from the centre of a red, one penny stamp that she noticed the card, which dated back to 1929.

“Mrs Spicer, who has lived at her home in St James Road, Watford, for 53 years, said: ‘I took everything in and when I looked through it, I saw George V looking me in the eye.’

“The postcard carries the image of the King’s Head pub, in Great Bircham, Norfolk.

“Addressed to a Mrs Sykes, of St James Road, Watford, it is dated September 9, 1929.

“The message reads: ‘Dear Hilda, one line today. I will come down on Sunday for certain but if you are going out please don’t stop for me. I shall walk down Wood Way. Thanks for letter [sic], all news when I see you. Love to you and to all yours, Rosa.’”

Mrs Spicer tried everything she could to find out more. She sought the help of her neighbour, Dot Evans, a keen genealogist who has traced branches of her family tree back to 1545 who searched through the 1911 census for the address and found there was a family named Hall, who had a 16-year-old daughter named Hilda.

The story continues: “Mrs Evans then looked for Hilda Hall and the name Sykes, which led her to a man named Frederick G Sykes, whom Hilda married in 1918.

“They must have lived with her [Hilda’s] mother at the time [the postcard was sent]. Itlooks like she was born in Meeting Alley because that’s where the family were in the 1901 census.

“Unusually, the postcard was delivered in a plastic wallet, with a price written in pencil on the reverse. “This has led the friends to believe it was bought by a collector. But why it came to be delivered to Mrs Spicer, who is not related to the Sykes family, 81 years after it was first sent remains unknown.

“She said: ‘I would have chucked it away if I hadn’t noticed King George.’

“‘It’s certainly a mystery,’ Mrs Evans added. ‘We're going to look after it and see if someone claims it. Perhaps a descendant of Hilda will want it or the collector.’”

That was back in 2010 and now, getting on for five years later, I’ve received the following letter from an Isabel Guthrie who lives in New Zealand.

“I am researching my father’s side of my family and was delighted to find the article in your newspaper “Postcard delivery shrouded in mystery” dated March 17, 2010.

“My father’s birth certificate shows his parents were Frederick George and Hilda Elizabeth Sykes (nee Hall). They lived at 88 St James Road, Watford and my father, Donald Frederick Sykes, was born at that address on November 18, 1921.

“As a child I lived in Sheffield but I remember visits to my grandmother (Hilda) before my family moved to New Zealand.

“If the postcard has not been claimed I would really like to have it.”

So – where is the postcard now? If either Mrs Spicer or Mrs Evans is reading this and still has it, please send it to Nostalgia and I’ll forward it to Ms Guthrie.

That’s all for this week. If you have anything to add on anything featured in Nostalgia – or have any questions you need answering – please do not hesitate to write. You can contact Nostalgia, by clicking here watfordnostalgia@london.newsquest.co.uk