These cuttings surfaced recently in the Crown Lane archive. Rose Finestone was the sister of William Warden. On the rear of one cutting has survived a list of Thames Regatta dates and these have helped date them. Mrs Finestone's age is given as 52. Presuming she was not too far apart in age from brother William, I guessed the cuttings dated from the 1940s or possibly early 1950s. (I remember hearing Bill say that he was the eldest of his family. His youngest brother was born at the same time as Bill was leaving home to get married.) Presuming the regattas (except Henley, which took place over four days) were all held on Saturdays narrows the choices down to 1943, 1948 and 1954. As far as I can gather, the regattas were suspended during WWII, which eliminates 1943. The mention that "Walton Amateur Regatta re-enters the lists for the first time since before the war" is the final clincher. This entry from the Walton rowing club website http://www.waltonrowingclub.co.uk/about-us/the-history-of-walton-rowing-club.html refers to "a meeting organised by the Club in December 1947, which re-established the Regatta in 1948". The exact date of her death is less precise. One cutting says she became ill on January 31 and the other that she died on January 10.
I have found two Google references to Mark Finestone, both of which show that he was a pigeon fancier:
http://www.pigeonnetwork.com/admin/bilcos_bulletin/drone.cfm?ID=498 "They were two birds that had been presented to Ron by Mark Finestone, of Shepperton, and were bred off the German Bachs pigeons that Mark had imported just after the war had ended."
http://www.elimarpigeons.com/ArticleA/OnTheRoad211108.htm "...after some help from local fanciers, including Mark Finestone..."
This cutting now puts ito perspective an earlier post about trench art, where I have included a picture of an embroidered postcard sent to Rose from Mark.
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