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Monday 18 February 2019

My Mystery Family Photo: 52 Ancestors: Week 8

"A Family Photo" is the theme of Week 8 of this year's "52 Ancestors " challenge.  Where to start?   I don't have many group photographs in my collection, but here are two of my Danson family from Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, on what seems to be a very happy occasion.  

But  I don't know  what the occasion was - and I never asked the right questions, when I first came across the pictures in a family album.   Why was I so reluctant to find out more?  

This appears to be taken outside a typical Blackpool bed & breakfast.  My grandmother (Alice Danson, nee English)  is in the centre of the group and to the right her daughters Kathleen (my mother), and Edith, and crouching at the side could be my Uncle Harry, smoking and wearing a carnation - though I did not instantly recognise him here. 
The second photograph shows  the Danson family - Edith, youngest daughter Peggy, my grandparents William and Alice, son Harry   and Kathleen, with youngest son Billy missing. The three sisters enjoyed fashion and  made their own clothes, with my mother apprenticed to a tailor at the age of 14. 

My guess as to the occasion rests on Uncle Harry wearing the carnation  Was this his short- lived wartime wedding?  But where was his bride?  Or was he best man?  Is that the happy couple  on the left of the first photograph where the girl has her arm around the man by her side, who I think is also sporting a buttonhole.   But why was my grandmother taking the centre stage position? 

Throughout my own life,  Uncle Harry lived in the family home with my grandfather and sister Edith (my grandmother died in 1945).  But through snatches of conversation I picked up as a child, I became aware that he had at some time married and was divorced - all very hush, hush  in those days, swept under the carpet and certainly never openly mentioned. 

It was only after his death, I found the papers confirming a marriage on 11th June 1940 and divorce in 1947.   

The marriage date is significant as Uncle Harry was one of the thousands of troops evacuated from Dunkirk on the flotilla of small ships  between 27th  May and 4th  June 1940. Yet here  he was some ten days later. 

My mother recalled how Harry arrived back home from Dunkirk  still in the uniform in which he entered the sea to be rescued.   He never talked about his wartime experiences, but seeing commemoration services or documentaries on TV could bring tears to his eyes, so the memories remained very strong. 

Below are some photogrpahs of Harry  - is he the man on the right  wearing the button hole in the family photographs?  What do you think?  There is no-one left in the family now who could throw any light on his marriage.

A young Harry sporting quite a hairstyle! 
This studio pose was taken at a photographers in Salisbury. 
Could this have been when Harry was on army training? 



The Errol Flynn look? 

Harry never remarried but lived a full life with interests in sailing, photography, stamp collecting and ballroom dancing,  where he was never short of partners.   He died  at  the age of 89, still retaining his good looks.  
  
Copyright © 2019 · Susan Donaldson.  All Rights Reserved

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8 comments:

  1. Oh Sue, what a lot of questions are left by those photos. I'm sorry nobody thought to write who they were, or at least the occasion. Uncle Harry reminds me of my paternal uncle, who also lived with his parents most of his life, but then married and they built a house right in the side yard of his parents.

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  2. Your Uncle Harry was indeed quite handsome through all the photos and I'm sure quite a charmer. As for the where's the bride...in the 2nd picture the lady on the left certainly looked like a happy bride in a white dress. Odd though that she wasn't included in the grooms family picture. Loved the fact that your mother and her sisters were seamstresses.

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  3. Interesting - possibly one of those little things where information gets lost and the past becomes a mystery.
    Handsome guy right enough.

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  4. There's nothing like a good mystery, is there? I feel like these two photos are a part of a greater set that was taken on the day. It definitely feels like a wedding - the group photos and the carnations. It's possible the lady on the far left, 2nd photo, is the bride. It also might be, for a wedding that ended in a hush-hush divorce, that Harry might not have wanted any reminders of his wife afterwards.

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  5. I find the most interesting thing about old photographs is the fashion trends. As for asking questions, sadly, we were just too young to think about them when we could have. Maybe we'll do better with the photos we pass on, Sue.

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  6. You're right. Studying photographs can lead to more questions than answers.

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  7. With the grandmother taking center stage, could this be a milestone birthday?

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  8. Thank you all for your thoughtfu comments. In reply to Yvette’s point about a possible milestone birthday, that is unlikely as my grandmother’s birthday was in September, along with my mother, aunt and Harry all born in September.

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