Brian Smith, an avid collector of local postcards, recently bought this postcard on a French auction website. From the message, Brian gathered that the recipient had recently lived in Badsey and that the house where she had lived appeared on the postcard. The Badsey postmark was clearly dated October 1915.
What was the story behind the card?
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Belgian refugees arrive in England
Following the German invasion of Belgium in 1914, nearly a quarter of a million refugees arrived in England. This was the largest contingent of refugees ever to come to England; their absorption into the host society was bound to be a complex process. A number of refugees began arriving in the Evesham area at the end of September 1914, as May Sladden described in a letter to her sister, Kathleen:
There are two families of Belgian refugees in Evesham, Mr Richard Burlingham has lent his old house in Port Street which was to let, they formed a committee and have got furniture etc given and lent, and money promised.
A scheme is set up in Badsey
Sisters May and Ethel Sladden, who lived at Seward House, Badsey, began to set in motion plans for having a similar scheme in Badsey. As May explained to Kathleen on 11th December 1914:
Ethel and I had a reply to our request to old Tommy Byrd that he would lend his house in Badsey (the old telephone office) for Belgians, and much to our surprise he is willing to lend it provided they are respectable and clean people and that the house is left in good condition afterwards. So now we shall have to see whether enough can be raised in weekly subs to keep a family, we think we had better have a meeting to discuss it.
Tommy Byrd was Thomas Byrd, JP, of Ivy House, Aldington, and the house in question was the present-day Spar in the High Street. May went on to say:
A family of 4 to 6 in number is what we want, and they must not be of the lowest class as the house is lent on condition that the occupants are respectable and clean. A man who could do some work, either on the land or carpentering or something of that sort would do, or a woman with children who could do some needlework or laundry work, but I think it would be best to have a man because as the spring advances there ought to be work about here on the land, and of course it would be a good thing for all concerned if they could do something to help keep themselves.
Just before Christmas 1914, a meeting was duly convened to discuss plans for supporting a Belgian family. Promises were given by many present of weekly subscriptions and of the loan of furniture. A committee was formed to collect further subscriptions and necessaries for the house and May and Ethel Sladden were elected joint Honorary Secretaries. In addition to the weekly subscriptions, fund-raising events such as whist drives were held.
The van de Wygaert family arrive in Badsey
It was not long before the first family arrived in Badsey: Josef and Julia van de Wygaert and their two children, Maria and Franz. Six-year-old Maria joined the Infants’ Department of Badsey Council School in January 1915. Franz, who was ten, did not enrol at the school. A photograph of the family taken soon after their arrival is in the Sladden family archive at Worcestershire Record Office.
Unfortunately, things did not work out well for the Wygaert family, as May told her mother in a letter of 7th July 1915:
We had a Belgian Committee meeting last night and decided that the Wygaerts must go, the man has refused to work since the scene with Ethel last Thursday, and Mr Jones wouldn’t take him on again now even if he wanted to. Mr Allsebrook and Mr Binyon both came to the meeting. They thought the man ought easily to get work in a munition factory …. Then Ethel and I will have to see Mr Byrd before we get another family down. I hope he will go on letting us have the house.
Nine days later, Josef van de Wygaert still had not found work, as a further letter of 16th July 1915 revealed:
The Belgian man hasn’t found work yet. I wrote to the Refugee headquarters yesterday asking if it would be best for him to go up to London to find work. He is of course getting short of money.
Departure from Badsey
We know now from the postcard that the van de Wygaerts did not go to London but instead went to Selly Oak, Birmingham. They left Badsey in August and were replaced by the Verbeeck family in October.
It was soon after this that the postcard was written, possibly by Mrs Ruth Cull who lived next-door to the family in Badsey. Before marriage, Mrs Cull (née Sylvester) had been Head Teacher at Badsey School. The postcard was addressed to Maria van de Wygaert, then aged seven. The salutation also mentioned Francis, Lucy and Sammy. Francis was obviously the anglicised version of the name of Maria’s brother, Franz. There were no other children in the family, so possibly Lucy and Sammy were pets or cuddly toys?
Nothing more is known about the van de Wygaert family after their move to Selly Oak. It is presumed that they returned to Belgium at the end of the war.
Maureen Spinks, October 2025.