Old photographs

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I did warn you, when I said I would bore you to death, once I began with the old photos.

This is a picture of a group of Salvation Army missionaries in India, shortly before WWI. My maternal grandparents are in the group. They has planned to stay in India indefinitely, but when my grandfather fell ill, they returned, perhaps encouraged further by the imminent arrival of their first child - my uncle.

[robk]

I promise this is my last one. The King family on 13 April 1914. I wonder if any of them had any notion of what was about to hit them. The young lad half off the photo on the left was Albert Edward. He died in 1917 in the Dardanelles when his Sopworth Camel came down. He has recently been commemorated with others on a memorial at Thassos.

[Stillhomewardbound]

'Old it, flash, bang, wallop, what a picture
What a picture, what a photograph
Comes the print in a little while
Lost 'er 'ead, but she kept 'er smile
Clap 'ands, stamp yer feet, Ye-e-a-y!
Bangin' on the big bass drum
What a picture, what a picture
Um-tiddly-um-pum-um-pum-pum
Stick it in your fam'ly album


But seriously ...

<<I wonder if any of them had any notion of what was about to hit them>>

It can never be properly imagined the loss of life that afflicted the nations that participated in erroneously named Great War.

There's a broad statistic, not to say chilling, that the lost of life of the principal nations was something along the lines of 1 out of every 3 British and Commonwealth soldiers lost, but the French toll was closer to 1 out of two, while the German loss was not far off 2 out of every 3.

I'll welcome being corrected on that reckoning, but I think it was not short of that measure.

We'll be hearing plenty more over the next four years as the various centenary anniversaries of Ypres, Mons, Passchendale, Galippoli and such occur.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Lot's of people know about my daddy ... but wait till I tell you about me mammy!!

If I could turn back the hands of time it would be to acknowledge how beautiful she was, and how lovely she stayed. Alas, as is too often the case, we took her, completely, for granted. Even though she loved us as keenly with her very last breath, just as she had with our very first.

[Richard Tarleton]

She's lovely, shb. What a smile, and those eyes!


Picking up on the doomed youth theme in robk's picture, here are my mother and her younger brother circa 1930 with their father (the Indian lot were on my father's side). My grandfather was a church organist and choir trainer, and John was a talented musician - pianist and chorister. He joined the Fleet Air Arm at the start of WW2 (my mother joined the WRNS) and went to train at Pensacola in Florida. He and his instructor were killed when their plane crashed - he was 19. Death in action would have been bad enough, but somehow death in training made it even harder to deal with.

[amateur51]

I promise this is my last one. The King family on 13 April 1914. I wonder if any of them had any notion of what was about to hit them. The young lad half off the photo on the left was Albert Edward. He died in 1917 in the Dardanelles when his Sopworth Camel came down. He has recently been commemorated with others on a memorial at Thassos.

What a photo, what an array of glittering dark eyes, robk! Sad story about young Albert Edward tho'.

[amateur51]

Lot's of people know about my daddy ... but wait till I tell you about me mammy!!

If I could turn back the hands of time it would be to acknowledge how beautiful she was, and how lovely she stayed. Alas, as is too often the case, we took her, completely, for granted. Even though she loved us as keenly with her very last breath, just as she had with our very first.

Dark beauty indeed, shb - such genes you have coursing through your veins

[amateur51]

She's lovely, shb. What a smile, and those eyes!


Picking up on the doomed youth theme in robk's picture, here are my mother and her younger brother circa 1930 with their father (the Indian lot were on my father's side). My grandfather was a church organist and choir trainer, and John was a talented musician - pianist and chorister. He joined the Fleet Air Arm at the start of WW2 (my mother joined the WRNS) and went to train at Pensacola in Florida. He and his instructor were killed when their plane crashed - he was 19. Death in action would have been bad enough, but somehow death in training made it even harder to deal with.

Is the lad responding to a call to "stand up straight, John!", I wonder? In contrast your mother looks very relaxed.

[ardcarp]

I could never be bored by old photos....endlessly fascinating. The headscarves on the 3 girls may be union flags, but the way they are arranged on their heads surely owes much to the fascination with all things Egyptian? And the Manchester primary school kids...are they all boys? Were the sexes segregated in primary schools in the forties?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

| And the Manchester primary school kids...are they all boys? Were the sexes segregated in primary schools in the forties?

Yes. My mother said the school was for boys only. But in those days it was more common.

[Don Petter]

Just caught up with this thread.

Thought you might like to see my grandparents:



Their dates were Charles 1858-1942 and Fanny 1866-1905, the photo being, I assume, sometime in the 1890s. They had seven children, my father (1901-1971) being the second youngest.

I am afraid I have not inherited their fashion sense.

[Nick Armstrong]

.... nor Charles's virtuosic handling of the razor to deliver that magnificent facial decoration? Although who knows, perhaps you have luxuriant chops, Don...

[amateur51]

.... nor Charles's virtuosic handling of the razor to deliver that magnificent facial decoration? Although who knows, perhaps you have luxuriant chops, Don...

Lordy you'll set off our resident Shave-Raver again if you're not careful, Cali

[Nick Armstrong]

Forumites will recall HS's glad tidings about

my daughter, who is a professional artist, has just been announced as the prizewinner in the annual BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year competition...

http://www.animalspiritart.co.uk/

He has asked me to post these two pictures testifying to the talented artist's very early close association with the animal kingdom! (In an interview for the BBC Wildlife magazine, she stated "I developed my love of animals at a very early age")

First, aged 2 months! having a snooze on HS's Pyrenean Mountain dog Susan in 1961:




("Taken with a rough old 127 Perma Special camera, cleaned up by a friend")



Second, aged 10 months with one of Susan's pups, Isolde:




Look at Isolde's face

As HS comments: "a touching reminder that the largest dogs are very often the most gentle"

[mercia]

Their dates were Charles 1858-1942 and Fanny 1866-1905, the photo being, I assume, sometime in the 1890s. They had seven children, my father (1901-1971) being the second youngest.

has seven children then dies at the age of 39 - the lot of a Victorian mother and possibly not that unusual (?)