Old photographs

[Stillhomewardbound]

Incidentally, that dates the photo as around 1905/6, rather than 1911 (presuming Nicholas is around 14/15 in the photo), as the memorial tells us he lost his young life in 1907...

(Sorry - it's the lawyer in me....)

Billiant, Caliban. Thank you for pointing that out. I attribute it to 1911 because there is a family census form available for that time. Dur. and I was wondering why the young lad wasn't on it.

I love this process. The picking and unpicking of detail in the family history.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Another layer behind that picture: his earlier brief marriage and elopement from Massachusetts to Italy aged 21 with a much older lady artist was never spoken of - his parents (father the accountant/librettist) arranged quickie divorce. He told his younger daughter in later years but even then not the full story, which was that his first two children with my great grandmother (in the picture) were born before they were married. They had travelled to England as man and wife on a doctored passport, had two children, and were only quietly married in St Pancras before their third child appeared . My grandmother never knew she was born out of wedlock

Only research into births, marriages and deaths, passenger lists etc. brings this sort of skeleton to light. Writing up the family history is one of the most rewarding things I've done in recent years, with the help of a genealogist friend. And yes, a few whose lives were tragically cut short, one way or another....

It's you that has the stories, Sir. This is worthy of a Trollope or a Vera Brittain!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

After many struggles (and an assist from Caliban), I've finally managed to post a picture of this family wedding photo from 1905.



The wedding photo was taken in front of 112 Cromwell Road in Patricroft, where my father later lived. The bride and groom, Nellie and John Britain, are seated in the middle of the front row (5th and 6th from the left). To the right of the groom sits Ruth Ramsden, who married my great uncle, who is on the left hand end of the 3rd row from the the front. They were first cousins; it would be good to be able to say their children did not show any effects of inbreeding, but sadly they did. On the extreme right of the back row are my grandparents (who were married two years later. One of the women on the left hand side of the back row is my great grandmother, but even my father could not say which one she was.
The first person (L) on the front row is Mary Dower (nee Wearne), the family matriarch, born in Cornwall in 1826. She lived until 1916.
I remember just one of the people pictured - the 8-year-old boy, Earnest Ramsden, who is sitting next to Mary Dower. He was my great uncle and died in the 1980's.

[Nick Armstrong]

Well posted EA!!

Great pic... So tell all !

Having managed to post the picture, it took me some time to edit. Thanks for your help.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oops! Sorry!
I posted my reply as an edit inside yours.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A picture from the 1870s, when my great great grandparents moved from Burras in Cornwall to Patricroft to find work. At the back are William and Mary Dower, with their 9 children, including Elizabeth Dower, my great grandmother.



They took with them a flower from their Cornish garden, which remained at 112 Cromwell Road, Patricroft, Lancashire until around 1960, when the house was sold. My father transplanted the flower to his own garden and it has now passed on to me. It continues to flourish to this day.

[french frank]

Not such an old photo as some, but with an historic interest: it's in a photographer's folder marked: "Peace Day July 19th 1919" - note the headscarves -



Three sisters - the middle one is my mother.

[robk]

Pipe smoking anti aircraft gun crew in the desert. My father on the left. I assume the gun was underneath the camouflage net. Sorry about the poor quality. Bit of a contrast with the previous post.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Sorry about the poor quality. Bit of a contrast with the previous post.

It's not about the quality, robk, it's about the content. I see a picture like this and in no time I have tears smarting my eyes. Please, tell us more!

[Richard Tarleton]

note the headscarves -

The way the headscarves are pinned up reminds me of photos of my grandmother in WW1 nurse's rig, ff - could there have been a nursing influence there by any chance?

[MrGongGong]

note the headscarves -

Should be banned, it's an "alien" culture taking over our great nation

[robk]

It's not about the quality, robk, it's about the content. I see a picture like this and in no time I have tears smarting my eyes. Please, tell us more!

My father was a carpenter and joiner which was a reserved occupation. His brothers stayed at home building wooden mine sweepers at Johnson & Jago at Leigh-on-Sea, but he volunteered for the army in April 1941. He trained at Aldershot and sailed from Gourock to Bombay then to Africa. He was sent on a predictor course at Haifa in June and transferred to the Royal Artillery to serve with the 8th Army in North Africa and the Middle East. I wish I had recorded details of where he went and the stories that he told while he was still alive. I know that a bomb fell very close to the gun emplacement and would have wiped them out if it had exploded. He was able to visit Palestine and to attend classical concerts at Tel-Aviv but I’m not sure when - there are photographs of Bethlehem. At some point he went on a signals course and thereby missed out on a move to Italy where most of the regiment died. When the war ended he considered staying on, in the Palestinian Police Force, but this didn’t happen and he sailed for Blighty in October 1945 on the Duchess of Devonshire. One of the men in the photograph is probably Harry my Godfather, but the families lost contact when I was little so I don’t know which one.

[french frank]

The way the headscarves are pinned up reminds me of photos of my grandmother in WW1 nurse's rig, ff - could there have been a nursing influence there by any chance?

Doubt it, RT. Their father (my grandfather) was a boot manufacturer. I think the headscarves are union flags. My cousin has a better photo where the little girls are each holding flagstaffs (about as tall as themselves) with union flags. Perhaps the photographer produced those?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My mother was a newly qualified teacher at the beginning of WWII. She was sent from Manchester to North Wales with evacuee children. She spent two years in Talysarn, but then returned to war-torn Manchester, where she taught some of the children who had remained there. This was her class of primary school boys c.1944.

[Richard Tarleton]

What a lovely photo - some great body language and smiles!