Postcard of the Month: August 2025
/Arundel High Street
This printed postcard shows the stationery shop at the bottom of Arundel High Street. It is part of an ‘Exclusive Photocolor Series’, possibly from Photochrom, but sold by Lapworth and Son, Market Square and High Street, Arundel. It is their shop in the picture,
In front of the shop are a series of newspaper billboards with the current headlines. The Daily Mail billboard reads ‘Latham Falls in Sea at Dover’ referring to Hubert Latham (1883-1912), a French aviator taking part in an attempted Channel crossing from Sangatte in his early plane, an Antoinette V11. He was the demonstration pilot for the company which made it and was competing for the prize awarded by the newspaper for the first crossing of the English Channel by air. It was his second attempt.
Hubert Latham’s first attempt (in an Antionette 1V) was on 19th July 1909 and had ended soon after take-off with engine failure dumping it in the sea. The aeroplane floated until Latham was rescued by the French destroyer following the flight. A few days later, Bleriot won the prize in his aircraft of the same name, becoming the first to cross the Channel.
Latham made his second attempt at the crossing in the Antoinette V11 on 27th July 1909, only for engine failure to ditch him just a few hundred yards short of Dover where he was once again rescued with just minor injury. This therefore dates the postcard to shortly after the billboarded event, perhaps August 1909.
Latham gave up flying in 1911 when the company folded. He died on a safari in Africa in 1912, reportedly trampled to death by buffalo but was possibly killed by his porters.