Windy Weather and Hands on Head - Sepia Saturday

"Hand on Head" was my first reaction to this week's Sepia Saturday prompt  photograph of a man smiling  as he walked along the street with his hand up to his head.  Then  I zoomed in and he seemed to be fighting  the wind  with his jacket flying open and him protecting his beanie hat.  So a mixture of two themes from me to match the prompt.  

My husband's Aunt Pat and family c.1918  enjoying a somewhat wintry windy walk with husband Frank King.  daughter Annette and  little son Frank  - with Aunt Pat keeping a  firm hold on her hat.  
 

 

My grandmother Alice English (1884-1945) who married William Danson in 1907.  Looking happy and poised, she is wearing a corsage in this photograph and I have always thought it must be a wedding picture with copies held by different members of the Danson family. I like to think that Alice was looking forward to happy family times, as she had had a chequered childhood - born in a workhouse and I have never found her living with her mother.   

A more pensive   look from Alice in this photograph taken in 1916 as her husband set off for army service in France, along with four of his brothers.  

 

My great grandmother Maria Rawcliffe (1859-1919) who married James Danson in 1877.  I have never been able to assess her likely age in this image.  She is the ancestor who inspired my family history writings and has featured frequently on my blog - the seventh of eight daughters (five surviving infancy) and with an extended family of three step-siblings and five half-siblings.   Maria and James had ten sons followed by their only daughter Jennie. Not surprisingly her life proved a rich source of family stories!  

 George Danson, Maria's youngest son, looking quite contented here in his life as a manager of a W. H. Smith station bookstall.  But life was to take a massive turn for the worst, as he was enlisted in the army and with a few months had died in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 a week after his 22nd birthday.  

 

70 years on, here is my daughter (left) enjoying a donkey ride in October on  an empty Blackpool beach.    But take a look at that man leading the group,  hand on head  - was he a bit fed up of this task and pleased  it was the end of the holiday season?  Or perhaps he was keeping his hat in place in a likely breeze.   

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Onto more windy days: 

 

 Hair blowing in the wind as my daughter poses on the North Pier in Blackpool, with the famoue Blackpool Tower in the background. 

 

 

Braving the elemements, daughter  keeping firm hands on her hood, on the Isle of Iona  off the west coast of Scotland.  

 

 

 Same place, same date.   But in Britain you learn to enjoy yourselves whatever the weather.  Our dog, Casmir  might have thought otherwise!   

  

Beanie Hats are not really my style - but sometimes needs must!    

And finally - Casmir sitting pretty,  her  fur blowing in the wind 

 

 

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