Can anyone help me decipher this signature?

[LaBelleSauvage123]

I’m doing some family tree research and can’t find this person - it’s definitely a male. What do you think?

Han Kylthurst ?

Agree - the main part of the letter is really easy to read.

The signature
.... first letter of firtst name could be an A (the writer has used different forms during the rest of the text), or an H, or an F, or possibly a J. Last letter of first name could be a decorative D, but could be an S or an E if you look at the lettering throughout the rest of the text.
Surname - first letter may be a K, but it could be an R where the pen has failed at the top. Second letter is possibly Y but could be an i followed by a J or a P - at a stretch it could be an F. Third letter possibly L or T or a large letter C starting the word 'church'. The last letter could be Y or Z or N based on the rest of the text, possibly with a T before it.

I think the surname might start Kp, but I don't know if that would make sense in a non English name. It could also be 'kip', maybe Kipling or kiplitz

My old English teacher (who was very old when she taught me 40 years ago) wrote letter 'p' with an upstroke and z also had a tail, the writer seems to use the same 'p'

At the end of the first name is a loop that looks the same as in the word 'large'

Argh I'm over-invested in this.

Some googling has, to my eye at least, come up with 'Palmer' as the type of writing.

Are you certain it's a man?
Could the squiggle at the end be a contraction, so - Hannah?

What's the backstory OP? I presume Ada didn't go on to marry the letter writer or you'd know his identity. Did her brother(?) Jack return safe from his travels do you know - she's obviously been worrying about him.

Kefbury?

Just read letter. Forget Hannah, but still maybe a contraction - Harold?

The last letter of the first name looks like a d to me not an s. The H could be a J and L. Actually to me the first name reads (Jand.) maybe it’s an initial then the word and with a full stop.

I think the first name definitely starts with an H, as it corresponds with the text, and also is a clear H in the initialled post-script.

Agee could be a contraction of Harold.

The backstory: the recipient of the letter is Ada Coulson, my great grandmother, who returned from the States in 1908 with her 3 children and pg with her 4th ( Mary/Maisie) born 1908. Her husband John(Jack )Coulson had apparently abandoned them in America and they had returned to Britain as ‘destitute aliens’. Shortly after their return the whole family entered the workhouse in Greenwich. Ada eventually found work as an assistant matron at one of the children’s homes run by the Greenwich Union. She would have still been working there when this letter was written. I have a folder of letters and documents which tell parts of the story and am trying to piece it all together.

I doubt that Maisie, Adas daughter, is the Maisie mentioned in this letter as she was unmarried - my mother visited her from time to time as she only died in 1985. Unless she was working for the letter writer or engaged to him? He talks jokingly about being called ‘uncle’ by Jack ( Ada’s oldest son, my grandfather) and Millicent ( Ada’s niece) and about being mistaken for a stepfather - so that could suggest that the Maisie in the letter is very young ( she would have been sixteen).

It’s a mystery!

Hmm, so he could be an American friend, or an English one.
If English, you could look on the 1901 census for her and then search surrounding streets, for a local friend.

I read it as Hans Kylhurst or maybe Flavio Kylhurst?

Flavio Kylhurst would be the best name ever.

The last letters do look the same as the “ly” in affectionately but I think perhaps it might be “tz” my best guess in Hans .... burtz but “kylburtz” doesn’t make sense.

I love the back story though - so “Jack” is her son, not husband. It does sound like the letter writer is replying to ease a mother’s worry for her son. (I’m assuming The backstory to Jack is that he is in the military, and will be based at a camp outside Ismailiah after serving in India)

It’s possible the writer was/is also in the military having travelled on the same ship before but he could have sailed on her prior to its military requisition.

Who’s child is Millicent? You say Ada’s niece but who is ada’s sibling that is also Millicent’s parent?

I’m wondering if the writer is somehow connected to the railways in Egypt, maybe for work? He certainly seems to expect to go to Ismailia at some point in the future. (As does Maisie - and it sounds like they have both been there in the past - I can’t work out if they would be there together or separately)

And if Maisie is going to Ismailiah on her own, what on earth would she be doing there on her own in the 1920s - you say Ada’s daughter was unmarried so maybe it is the same one.

This is wonderfully mysterious and I hope you work out who he is.

Not everyone is on ancestry. I have tried to do my family tree but have had some dead ends.

I have German and Polish ancestry - have you tried Hansi

I don’t think it is a y in the surname it is similar to f in the letter so maybe
Kif

Trying a totally different angle the ship mentioned in the letter is this one
www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/bibby.shtml
Derbyshire 1
It was a full time troop carrier in the 1920’s so HK might have been in the military

HK says he has boarded the ship many times

Do they have a male son you have already found? You could check for any male decendents and look for their surname, and try that? As long as each male decendent has a male decendent the surname may have continued (and even potentially the first name)

As you mentioned it, my first thought was James with a very flourish-y J for the first name!

Millicent’s father is Alfred Thomas Dodington Lewis ( magnificent name) Adas brother, and her mother Ethel Jane Oake.

Little dragon - do who have a male son?

I assumed military also.
Think Jack is a brother, not husband. The letter is slightly coy, and reads to me as if he wants to get to know her better, so to speak.
Maybe he is a school friend of Jack's, and has known for a while?
I'm more familiar with Victorian correspondence, but even by the 20s would be surprised to have a family friend write to a married acquaintance on such intimate ( for the period) terms.