“Colyton” 4, Park Drive, Grimsby c1917.

A repaired original, posted, photographic postcard. The fine Edwardian (or late Victorian) house looks very much the same today. It’s situated four houses from the Park Drive / Abbey Park Road / Welholme Road junction. The house name, “Colyton” (a town in Devon), appears to have been dropped.

For many years, this was the home of (James) Campbell Keay, the dentist in Dudley Street. Campbell Keay (1911-2004) was still working as a dentist until the age of 91, something of a record!

(James) Campbell Keay was born on 18th August 1911. He was the son of James Keay, a fish merchant, who also lived in Park Drive. (Was he James Keay, the mayor of Grimsby in 1941?)

The post card was posted in Grimsby, during WW1, on 25th March 1917. The sender was Richard Atkinson, a fish merchant who lived at “Colyton”. The recipient was Second Lieut. W. C. Cook, 3rd West Yorkshire Regiment, Whitley Bay, Northumberland.

Note: The Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, was a training unit. It remained in UK throughout the war and in August 1914 it moved to Whitley Bay and played a part in the Tyne Garrison.

Research by Grimsby and Cleethorpes Museum.