Historian Allan cracks soldiers' home mystery
Wellington-born historian Allan Frost regularly has people tapping his local knowledge about the Shropshire town, but in the end he got a bit fed up with being asked about one old postcard in particular.
It is captioned "Mrs Moore's Soldiers' Home, Wellington" and over the years people who have bought copies on the internet have got in touch with him to ask where in Wellington it was.
"I write back and say it's not our Wellington, and that I'm not convinced it's even in this country," said Allan.
"I got so fed up these last few months that I thought I would do a bit of research."
And his researches have solved the riddle of where it is.
"It's in India."
Wellington in India, he says, was named after the Duke of Wellington. He had defeated Tipo Sultan, an infamous persecutor of Christians, at the Battle of Seringapatam in 1799, and subsequently became Governor for a while. His base was at Jackatalla in the Nilgiri Hills, which was renamed Wellington in his honour in 1854.
The town developed into the principal military sanatorium of the British Army in south India.
Allan tells the full story of his researches in the latest edition of Wellingtonia, the newsletter of Wellington History Group.
"I'm hoping to lay the ghost," he said.
"I don't mind getting inquiries, but I would rather that they are about 'our' Wellington. I get inquiries about the Wellingtons all over the world, and even Wrekins all over the world."
His researches are not concluded, however, as he does not know anything about Mrs Moore herself, or what happened to the soldiers' home which bore her name.
"I contacted various email address and organisations in that part of India and have not had a reply. It's quite disconcerting."
The Nilgiri Hills translate as the Blue Mountains and modern Wellington (in India) is served by a little mountain railway.
