Are any sleuths willing to ponder some open-ended questions?

First, a mystery now partly solved, relates to this photographic postcard by ‘Kay’ of a Benskins public house. I purchased it many years ago at the Hertfordshire Postcard Collectors’ Club and now wanted to trace the building.

With an impressive lantern above the door, a sign indicating ‘Dinners’ and an opening to the left leading to ‘good stabling’ at the rear, it is a substantial building.

Ich Dien and the Prince of Wales feathers appear on the sign, with ‘Benskins Watford Ales’ emblazoned across the upper storey. Benskins draymen with horses and wagons would have delivered beer and ale directly to the cellar via the pavement trap door.

Benskins Plume of Feathers public house, 8 West Street, Dunstable, 1915. By ‘Kay’

placeholder image — Benskins Plume of Feathers public house, 8 West Street, Dunstable, 1915. By ‘Kay’

Two women, one with a shirt and tie, perhaps military uniform, appear at an upper window amid the ubiquitous lace curtains.

High Wycombe-born Arthur Britnell’s name appears as the licensee: a licensed retailer of wines and spirits, as well as a dealer in tobacco.

But, as far as I am aware, Arthur was a carpenter and joiner who was a Private in World War One, possibly in the 13th Hussars. I have found no record of him as publican. Who held that role?

A mature soldier appears at the entrance; a Staff Sergeant in the Royal Field or Horse Artillery who had modified the second button of his jacket to indicate mourning for a relative killed in the war. Was he about to return to the front, hence the gathering? Who was he – and the five others?

The Way Coffee House, 8 West Street, Dunstable, 2024. L-R Steve Neal, Pastor to the Community; Gareth Mitchell, Associate Pastor; Hannah Newton, Barista; and Maya Illiev, Catering Manager & Barista

Benskins public houses were well spread and, after much searching for Prince of Wales pubs, eliminating those in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Middlesex, I looked at Bedfordshire.

Then I spotted the Plume of Feathers, 8 West Street, Dunstable; Grade II listed. The frontage remains recognisable, but the stable entrance has been incorporated into the building.

It is now The Way Coffee House and The Way Christian Community Centre at the rear. I am grateful for a brilliant update to the postcard.

My old photograph was from World War One, but which year? Theatre posters on the wall of the stable entrance promoted a Grand Theatre production of the Broadway musical comedy, The Girl in the Taxi, which opened at the Lyric Theatre, London in 1912, with actor and tenor Strafford Moss as Head Waiter.

After much help, advice and encouragement in terms of World War I soldiers and theatricals, it appears that the production was making an anticipated return to the Grand Theatre, Luton, playing to crowded houses the week of Monday May 28 1915.

So, now I could finally date the postcard.

But that’s not all! On the back of the postcard, ‘Beat’ (there was a Beatrice Britnell) wrote to laundress Miss Lucy Benning of New Marston, Oxford: ‘Dear Luce, Find the puzzle’. Was she one of the girls at the window? Or was there more to it? A puzzling postcard!

Benskins Plume of Feathers public house, 8 West Street, Dunstable, 1915. By ‘Kay’ A Benskins dray used for deliveries to public houses, 1904. Benskins House Journal, The Pennant The Way Coffee House, 8 West Street, Dunstable, 2024. L-R Steve Neal, Pastor to the Community; Gareth Mitchell, Associate Pastor; Hannah Newton, Barista; and Maya Illiev, Catering Manager & Barista