Here is the story of a postcard over the distance of time.... from well over a hundred years ago.

Once upon a time there was a lady named Emily Thompson living at Datcha in Cross Lane in Findon.   In later life she was to become a celebrated centenarian and may even have received a message from the sovereign.

Emily, it was said came from Russia .... but was born on 31st December 1854 in Monmouth.   (There is just a little mystery attached to this — did she work for a wealthy Russian family as a governess or some such? 

She was lady of private means, the spinster daughter of Richard Thompson a schoolmaster.  She lived at Datcha (the word means "Summer House" in Russian) in Cross Lane before the Great War.  

It appears that the property was built for George Goatcher the landlord of the Gun Inn from 1899 - 1907.   He was the owner of several houses in the village and it looks as if the property was built between 1902 an 1905.   

The rate books held at the Chichester archives show that on the 19th April 1905 Emily paid rates of £2. 4s. 5d.   Mr. Goatcher the owner, retired to Homefield in Cross Lane two years later.    

  click to enlarge

On 11th October 1916, Emily paid rates due of £2.2s 3d. in arrears owning to the First World War.   Datcha was sold to Emily after George Goatcher's death.

I understand Emily stayed independent and lived alone.  I am also told that she rejected the comforts of things such as running water and drew her water from a well until well into her nineties.   She was then taken into care at the Convent in Nepcote where she celebrated her 100th Birthday and eventually passed away a year later aged 101 on 31st March 1956.