Edward Cunningham/Liverpool

[Hogan]

Hi All

This letter was printed in the Scottie Press, a local community newspaper for the area around Scotland Road in Liverpool.

The text along with the letter reads.

This hand written letter, along with a printed Christmas Card, was sent from St Sylvester's School in 1915 to a Pte Furlong who was serving in the RAMC . Pte Furlong was thought to be serving in the trenches at the time. The letter is signed by a pupil Edward Cunningham. It is not known by the Scottie Press whether the two were known personally to each other, or whether the practice of sending such morale boosting items was a government sponsored initiative. We are also keen to trace the fate of Edward Cunningham, born circa 1900.

Do you think we could find the soldier. Looks like J Furlong to me?

I put this on the Great War forum and one lady says it is a J for sure as she was taught old writing at school and thats how they wrote a J.

They also only found one Man serving in RAMC as J Furlong

Medal card of Furlong, John J

Royal Army Medical Corps    2919    Private


Now the boy who wrote the card was called Edward Cunningham. Im not on Ancestry at the moment so please would someone have a look for him, born around 1900? Not sure if we could find him as their are bound to be more than one.

Cheers

Ant

[CaroleW]

Hi

I have a friend whose ancestor went to St Sylvesters school and she has a beautiful letter written by him to his parents at Christmas.   It thanked them for being loving and caring parents and for ensuring he was fed & clothed etc etc. 

Apparently, the teachers wrote the letters but the children had to copy them as a handwriting test.

Her ancestor was about 11/12yrs old so Edward Cunningham may be a similar age but it depends what age group standard 6 and 7 was

[CaroleW]

There were not as many Edward Cunninghams as you may think.  The letter was written in 1915 so a birthyear of around 1900 would be a bit early

A possible candidate could be one born 1905 showing on the free 1911 index but 1911 lookups are not allowed on RC 

EDIT - confirmed via pm that this is the right Edward

[CaroleW]

There is a WW1 service record for a John Furlong age 48 at enlistment - address looks like 27 Everton Crescent but discharge address in 1917 was 34 Hornsey Rd Anfield.   His Reg number was 1805

Likeliest given his address - James Furlong b 1885 Liverpool enlisted 1904 in 2/7th Kings Liverpool
24 Great Mersey St  Reg number 15999  died 27.9.1918 as per www.cwgc.org

[Hogan]

THANK YOU

So much info.

Pal on the great war forum has given me this.

In 1911. John Furlong age 21yrs Pawnbroker's Assistant of 28 Louis St, off Scotland Road.

Medal Card John J Furlong 2919 R.A.M.C.

[Gibel]

Standard V was 10/11 year olds so Standard 6 would have been 11/12 year olds.

[Gibel]

Edward Hugo Cunningham born 5 December 1904 was christened at St Sylvester's RC church on 11 Dec 1904. Parents John Patrick Cunningham and Ann Bradley

The priest has added the information that edward married Dorothea Maria McGuiness on 12 Feb 1936 at St Frances Salles (I think it's Salles)

Maybe there are children of this marriage who would love to see their father's letter.

[Hogan]

Thank you all. This is brilliant.

Yes it would be great to find any family so they could see the letter.

I have info on John Furlong. I believe we have him in Hopwood street in 1911. Right by the school.

[Gibel]

There's a death in 1974 in Liverpool North for an Edward Hugh Cunningham with the same date of birth. I would imagine Hugo was the latinized form of Hugh. He seems to have remained in the area.