Together with the genealogy magazine Your Family History, we’re looking for the living relatives of the famous Victorian cemetery, Postman’s Park.
London’s Postman’s Park was built in 1880 and became a memorial for those who sacrificed their lives for others.
Among the commemorated is Alice Ayers, who died in 1885, rescuing children from a fire. Alice Ayers was also the name adopted by Natalie Portman’s character in the film Closer, starring Jude Law, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.
In the film, Natalie Portman and Jude Law visit Postman’s Park. Portman’s character assumes the fictitious identity of ‘Alice’, when she sees a tribute to Alice Ayers, displayed on the park’s Memorial to Self Sacrifice. Lying about her name! Boo.. hiss..
But we can’t be so easily fooled! Now we’re after the real thing.
Your Family History have been using 192.com credits to search our Births Deaths and Marriages Indexes and Edited Electoral Roll data to trace living descendents of the park, and now the race is on to find them.
If you know anyone related to Victorian heroes, Alice Ayers, Arthur Regelous, David Selves, Samuel Rabbeth, Henry James Bristow or Thomas Griffin get in touch with us at 192.com or alert Your Family History by emailing: marketing ‘at’ YourFamilyHistory.com.
Postman’s Park is situated just north of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, bordered by Aldersgate Street and King Edward Street. It opened in 1880 on the site of a former churchyard of St Botoloph’s Aldersgate Church, later expanding to cover the burial grounds Christ Church Greyfriars and St Leonard, Foster Lane. The park’s name reflects its popularity amongst the workers of the nearby General Post Office.
In 1900, the park became the location to George Frederic Watt’s Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice, and the memorial’s star-turn can be vewied in the closing scene of the 2004 film Closer, adapted from the Patrick Marber play.