Postcard provides insight of couple's wartime interaction

The front of the postcard, featuring drawings over the standing stones

It had been sent by her grandfather, who died in Bognor Regis.

The postcard depicts the standing stones of Stenness in Orkney, and had been sent by Sally’s grandfather, Joe Redgrave, on Sunday, July 21, 1918, to Sally’s grandmother, Ada Hawes, who lived in Lee Street in Dalston, London at the time.

The message reads: ‘My dear old Kid, Just a card, to see how we find things eh! So cheerio, alls well, just sending you a wee ? my old chicken. So hoping everything is on topline Dearies, with just a cheer up wish. Fondest Love, Ever Yours, Joe’.

Sally said: “We have found out that Jow was in the Navy until May 1918 and then joined the new RAF later that year.

“We think the plane is a Handley Page O/400, first flown in 1917. Joe’s drawingis pretty accurate.

“His service record suggests he was an early pilot. We are trying to find out more.

“Joe died in Bognor Regis on August 9, 1976. He lived at Abbyfields retirement home, after moving from London to be nearer his daughter, my mother.”

The Handley Page O/400 was built after proposals made by Frederick Handley-Page, who, after the outbreak of World War One, saw the need for a long range bomber. A formal specification was issued in December, 1941, for four prototypes, and the first prototype was delivered a year later.