PECULIAR POSTCARDS

JAN BONDESON shares another deltiological discovery from his prodigious collection of postcards. This month’s pictorial blast from the past celebrates another eccentric Bird-Man, the mysterious R Hedges Bates of Hyde Park

51. THE BIRD-MAN OF HYDE PARK The mystery man Richard Hedges Bates, bane of the Internet genealogists, was born in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, in 1865. Little is known about his early activities, but by the 1890s, he began to self-publish small religious tracts, usually 16 pages long, about weighty subjects such as ‘The ruling and Kingdom of Christ, in opposition to the rule of Satan and death’ or ‘Self-cultivation: its importance and benefit. What is religion?’ He later had a slender volume printed, containing all his tracts up to date, and entitled Religious Tracts by R Hedges Bates. Published, under the initials RHB at Stewkley, or at Torbay Villa, near Leighton, Beds. Apart from his religious writings, R Hedges Bates also had a second career. In the 1890s, he became ‘The…

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Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 455

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