Family & Friends in Threes: Sepia Saturday

Three young men enjoying a relaxing sail feature in this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph.  I have little on ships and sailing, but plenty on family and friend in threesomes.

My best match:

THREE SAILOR LADS

This is one of the many photographs in my great aunt Jennie Danson’ collection – here identifying her cousin Jack Riley, of Fleetwood, Lancashire.

Jack, the seated figure in the middle of this group,  is in sailor uniform with the cap  HMS Chester.

Jack was 5 months old in the 1901 census, but so far I have been unable to find him ten years on;  nor could I trace a service record  for him.

I did a search for HMS Chester and was surprised to find it was the ship on which a young sailor John Travers Cornwell fought at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and  was warded the Victoria  Cross for a conspicuous act of bravery.  The citation reads  "Mortally wounded early in the action, Boy, First Class, John Travers Cornwell remained standing alone at a most exposed post, continuing to service his gun, until the end of the action, with the gun's crew dead and wounded all round him. His age was under sixteen".

John Cornwell was a keen scout in his home town and in his honour the Boy Scout Association instituted  the Cornwell Scout Badge, awarded for outstanding acts of  courage and endurance in the face of adversity. There is an additional  personal dimension to this story, for my husband received the Cornwell badge in 1948 following three years serious illness  in hospital.

Was Jack Riley another young sailor  on board HMS Chester at this time? Something to add to my research "to do" list.

  

I have  a postcard sent by his mother to my great grandmother to say " Jack went out to sea today.  He went in good spirits".  The postmark is difficult to make out but could be 7.?? 16. 

THREE SOLEMN CHILDREN

A younger photograph of Jack (on the right) with his sister Jane and brother Tom, c.1913.

THREE GENERATIONS

 My great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe (1859-1919), 

with her daughter Jennie (my great aunt)  and her little granddaughter Annie - c. 1909. 

Jennie was the only daughter and last child of James and Maria Danson, born on Christmas Eve, December 24^th 1897, with her eight (surviving)  brothers,  George then aged 3, Frank 5, Albert 7, Tom 9, William 12, Robert 16, John 18 and Harry 20 – quite a household in what looked like  a cramped terraced house.  Their father James died in 1906. 

Jennie's photograph collection forms the basis of much of my family history and even better she had identified the names on the back of most of the photos.   

THREE SISTERS

Another photograph from Jennie's collection, identified as Amy,  Edna and Lavinia Dodd, Todmorden.

Jennie's youngest brother George had enlisted  January 1916 at Todmorden, West Yorkshire.  His service record gave his   address at the time as  17 Harker Street, Harley Bank,  Todmorden, with occupation station bookstall manager. 

I turned to the 1911 census online  and found the Dodd family at  17 Harker Street, Harley Bank,  Todmorden, with head of household Elizabeth Dodd (occupation choring) and three daughters Amy aged 15 (a cotton weaver) , Edna 12 (a fustian sewer)  and Lavinia  aged 9.  

George was killed 9 months after enlisting and his name is on Todmorden War Memorial as well as on the  memorial at his birthplace in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. 

THREE HAPPY CHILDREN

 

My cousin's father in his little Lord Fountleroy outfit - Arthur Smith, born 1908 in Blackpool, Lancashire, with his sisters Ella and Edith.

 

THREE ON THE ROCK

My parents, though I suspect this was taken prior to their marriage in 1938, with Mum (Kathleen Danson) on the left and Dad (John Weston) on the right  - plus an unidentified friend.

A FAREWELL TRIO

My father in RAF uniform, with my mother on the right and her sister, my Aunt Edith on Dad's left - taken in the garden of my grandfather's house, c.1940.

THREE IN A ROW

 

Dad on the left  and his older brother Fred - whilst I am the little girl, not looking too happy.  

 

A PROUD TRIO

 

A windy day for my graduation, Edinburgh 1965. 

 

THREE MORE GENERATIONS

With my mother and my daughter, 1981

 

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