A grandaughter unearthed a family mystery after finding a postcard from the First World War.

Sally Bunday found a postcard sent by her grandfather, Joe Redgrave, to her grandmother Ada, who lived in Stonard Road, Palmers Green.

He sent the postcard from the Orkneys during the war and the card features a drawing of a Handley Page Bomber and the Standing Stones of Stenness.

The message reads: “My dear old kid, just a card, to see how we find things eh.

“So cheerio, all is well, just sending you a wee charm, my old chicken.

“So hoping everything is on topline dearie, with just a cheer up wish.

“Fondest love, ever yours, Joe.”

Joe's family believed he served with the army during the Great War, but the postcard means they discovered he was actually in the newly created RAF as a bomb loader.

Sally, who now lives in Sussex, also later found out he was one of the survivors of the 1952 Harrow and Wealdstone train crash that killed 112 people.

Joe was 78-years-old when he died in 1976.

Sally said: “I think it’s interesting, people back then never spoke about what went on in their lives.

“It’s sad that he served in the war and people didn’t know very much about it.

"But he was in the RAF when it was just created.

“My granddad was always kind, and he never seemed to get angry - Although everyone had to be quiet for the radio when the football was on.

“This experience has made me think more about my family, about finding my other cousins and I’m hoping that with my sister's help, I will find out more."

Joe was only 20-years-old when he wrote the postcard to his then fiancé, Ada.

He married her after the war in 1919 and had a son Teddy who died young and a daughter Irene – Sally’s mother.

After the war, Joe worked as a bank clerk and later as a fire warden during the Second World War.

Coming from a pacifist family, Sally's mother, Irene, would later become an activist and campaign against nuclear weapons.

Joe on the other hand, according to Sally, believed that violence was a part of human nature.

She said: “My family spoke about banning the bomb and was against war and violence, but I remember asking my grandad about why people hurt each other, he said, until you change human nature there’s little you could do.”