House-clearing continues, and in an otherwise unremarkable case-bound Novello’s edition of Handel’s Messiah we find an inscription: “With fondest love to Father from Susie and Alf. Xmas 1897”. The ‘Susie and Alf’ of the inscription appear to be Susanna Lilian PHILLIPSON (nee LUCAS) and her husband Alfred. Susanna’s sister was Evelyn Eva LUCAS, a direct family ancestor of the Littlejohn sisters including Sara. ‘Father’ is therefore most likely to be William LUCAS, as Susanna’s name is first on the inscription and the book probably came down through the LITTLEJOHN line rather than that of the PHILLIPSONs. Clearly, around Christmas 1897 Susie and Alf were living in Alf’s home town (and mine), for the shop sticker on the frontispiece is from William Lea’s shop ‘The Liver’ in Church Street, Liverpool. William Lea was a piano maker, and his shop would at the time have been close to the then parish church of Liverpool. In 1977 when I last looked, the site of the church was marked with a simple brass cross set in the pavement, but the area is now redeveloped several times over since the Luftwaffe paid many visits during WWII! Susie and Alf’s son Alfred Stanley was 2 years old this Christmas. In April 1901 Susie, Alf and little Alfred were living at 15 Cedar Road, Walton on the Hill. That’s a mile and a half from where I grew up, and who knows: they may have bought their bread from the shop where my grandfather was later to become an assistant.
