COLIN Bainbridge has sent this interesting postcard on which the caption says: "William C Browne, Military Medallist, Darlington, Durham on his 8,000 miles' walk which he has undertaken to complete in 10 months. Commenced 17th October 1924."

The internet in all its glory is quiet on the achievements of "William C Browne".

Wikipedia has a page on William C Brown who, without the final e, "was an American electrical engineer who helped to invent the crossed-field amplifier in the 1950s and also pioneered microwave power transmission in the 1960s".

We are no further forward.

Colin reads the postcard caption as saying William C Browne comes from Darlington. I read the caption as saying that he his merely passing through Darlington when the photo was taken. Indeed, to me, there is something distinctly North American nonconformist about William C Browne and his Mounties hat.

If my theory is to be correct, then I need to identify where in Darlington the picture was taken as William passed through. I can't, but then things have changed a little since 1924-25. I wonder, though, whether the big white building marked Depositories in the background was somewhere in the Freeman's Place area of town, where Halfords is today on the ringroad. I have a vague feeling that there was a Salvationist hostel in that area of town - as there is today - so our nonconformist Mr Browne could have overnighted in there.

Has anyone got any better theories or, better still, any real information?