The Man Reunited with his Wallet after 65 years

The man is Edward Parker and in 1950 he was an electrical Contractor working at Lambeth Palace , London repairing bomb damage from WW2 , the wallet was accidentally dropped behind a medieval bookcase where it remained until it was discovered this year by contractors carrying out restoration work.

When BBC Newsnight reporter James Clayton was told of the discovery he decided to see if he could track down the owner of the wallet and discover what became of him and perhaps return the wallet to the mans family , the search led him to a care home in Essex where amazingly 89 year old Edward Parker now lives although he is suffering with dementia , though according to James Clayton he was clearly delighted to see the pictures that were contained within the wallet.

The wallet is a time capsule. Its leather and webbing has long ago started to disintegrate. But it contains numerous pictures of family, invoices, receipts, old union cards, results of a chest X-ray (sent to him in 1948, the same year as the NHS was founded), a national service card dated 9 December 1944 and a medical insurance card.

His business cards - E Parker, Electrical Contractor - seem almost pristine. Reflecting the typical methods of contact of the time, they have an address but no telephone number.

His wife , Constance also survives and is now 90 , she remembers the day Edward returned from work upset at the loss of the wallet , she says "I know he was upset. He came in and said 'I lost my wallet' and I said 'Never mind"

"And one of his mates said to him: 'What did you lose, Ed?' And he said 'Never mind what I lost, the money I don't worry about, it's the memories that I lost.'"

The wallet also contained a photo of her and Edward taken in Eastbourne the day she told him she was pregnant with their first child. "I was frightened to tell him," she recalls. "We didn't have any money"

www.bbc.co.uk...

I found it an interesting tail and share it in the hope that some of you may find it equally as interesting.

That reminds me of a story I read about a man that collected old camera's

He bought one and it had a film in it, developed it and there were pictures of him and his family taken by some people they met on holiday about 50 years previously.

I love stories like this and will try and find the story.

Thanks for posting. Nice story. We need more of these. S&F

Good read thanks