Family historian Chris Sutton looks at the sequence of events that saw a future president of the United States of America write a letter from his sick bed in Malvern

JAMES Roosevelt was a New York businessman, the vice-president of the Delaware and Hudson Railway and president of the Southern Railway Security Company.

He often travelled from New York to Britain for business and pleasure so his trip in the summer of 1889 was not unusual.

This time both he and his wife Sara were worried about their son, seven-year-old Franklin.

He was unwell before they even boarded the ship and his condition worsened during the voyage. Franklin was diagnosed with typhoid fever by the ship’s doctor, necessitating his going to the Royal Infirmary in Liverpool when the ship docked.

After leaving the Infirmary he was sent to convalesce in Malvern at Aldwyn Tower.

This was a spa-type hotel in St Ann’s Road and he spent his time there under the care of his governess, while his parents were away visiting various friends.

Amazingly a copy of a letter Roosevelt wrote from Malvern to his mother survives in the Franklin D Roosevelt Presidential Library.

It was written in ink, and the date “1889” was later added by his mother.

All of the letter was written in capitals, but the punctuation is as he used it:

“ALDWYN TOWER GREAT MALVERN My Dear Mama.

We have not been able to go out today. We have been playing games. One game was steeplechase the other was soldiers the other dominoes, and it took up all the morning.

We played some more this afternoon. We made a great discovery of a box of dominoes and draughts with the red and white kings and queens just like that book Through The Looking Glass.

We nearly went to the beacon this morning and we picked a lot of wild flowers. Your loving Franklin.”

[Across outside of letter, to show when folded in four, he wrote: From Franklin)

Just how long did Roosevelt stay at Aldwyn Tower? He may have been there till September 21 or so because he hand-made a birthday card for his mother.

It isn’t clear where he made it but it was in Britain and could well have been in Malvern.

One picture of Roosevelt at Bicester exists from this particular visit to Britain, so he clearly got out and about with his parents at some point

The passenger lists for the Roosevelt family’s journey to Britain are missing but there are records remaining of them making a trip in 1890 from Liverpool to New York.

It might be that this was in fact their return trip from their 1889 visit but it might be a return visit from a later trip.

In any case the passenger list of SS Germanic on May 7 shows James and Sara Roosevelt, their maid (un-named – just ‘maid’), young Franklin and a lady noted just as a spinster named Marie Reinsburg, who seems a likely candidate to be the governess.

It was a long trip in those days even on the biggest ocean liners; Germanic docked in New York on May 17!

Roosevelt, of course, went on to become the 31st President of the United States.

His historic stay at Aldwyn Tower is marked by a blue plaque installed by the Malvern Civic Society.

The next article will look at Malvern residents in the passenger lists.

Chris Sutton is happy to undertake family history research for readers via email. This service is charged for (stated in advance) if there are results.

He can be contacted at vcgcbham@yahoo.co.uk.