Postcard to W A Kirby

I was thrilled to find this photo on the site. This is of my grandfather, William Alfred Kirby with his wife Minnie Florence Simonds. He came to Spondon as an infant, with his mother, a story I've told in my book A Victorian Miss: A Kind of Courage. (To be found on Amazon, if anyone should want to find it.) His schooldays were spent under 'Gaffer Douglas, that best of schoolmasters' as a friend put it in a letter. The two girls, born 1904 and 1908, are Margaret and Phyllis Kirby, the latter my mother. I'd date the photograph at about 1913. In 1915 Will was conscripted and the horses had to go. We still have their brasses, with which they were decked up on high days and holidays, plaited manes, ribbons and all. Will worked up from firewood to coal. Then, after the war, spent as a lorry driver, (unscathed except for a German ambush and ten days trying to get back to his regiment where he had trouble convincing them he was not a deserter) he worked at the Celanese for a couple of years, set himself up as a market trader, bought 48 Chapel Street and ran a general store. In December 1950, Will appeared on Country Matters with Ralph Whiteman. I still have four pages of the script. Minnie sold hats while Will was away at war - she was trained as a milliner before she became lady's maid to one of the Coxes, relatives of the Coxes at Spondon Hall. She was a member of the Mother's Union and the Women's Institute, and President of one of those.
The elder of the daughters became Almoner at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary for many years.
NB I previously sent photos of Will and Minnie outside 48, Chapel Street, but I can't find them on your site I can resend if you're interested.