A portrait of an elegant lady features in this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt image. Rather than a head. & shoulders or hairstyles theme which I have done in the past, I have chosen to look at Portraits of Life. .
Portrait of Childhood
Funnily
enough I cannot remember having any favourite soft toys, (I was a dolly girl), though presumably the
one I am clutching in this studio photo must have been high on the list.
Portraits of Friendship
Amy Dodd was a friend of George Danson,(1894-1916) my youngest great uncle who, as a stretcher bearer in the field was killed on the Somme in World War One.
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Annie Jolly was a friend of my great aunt Jennie Danson (1897-1986)/ There were close links between the two families of Jolly and Danson.
Portraits of Faith
1, Dorothy Chisholm was confirmed in St. Chad's Parish Church, Poulton-le-Fylde. She was engaged to John Danson, my widowed great uncle, but but he was killed in 1917 whilst in army training. Dorothy never married, but the Danson family maintained contact with her throughout her life and I have memories of visiting her in a bedsit with my mother taking her some of her home baking.
2. My husband's great aunt Violet Hibbert, in her confirmation dress, taken at Frank & Hamilton, Ocean Road, South Shields, County Durham.
3. My paternal great grandfather James Matthews (1844-1917) of Wolverhampton in the English Midlands. John was a staunch Methodist who conducted the local church choir and I am proud to have the silver baton he was presented with for his service to the church.
Portraits of Service in War
1. My maternal grandfather Willliam Danson (1885-1962) who was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in action iin World War One.
2. My great uncle George Danson (1894-1916), William's youngest brother , who was killed on the Somme in 1916.
My father John Weston (1912-2003) of Blackpool, Lancashire often talked about his war
experiences (a sanitised version I am sure) and I am afraid it did provoke the reaction at times of “Not
the war again, Dad”. It was only later that we came to realise what a
life-defining period it was, and I persuaded him to write an account for
his granddaughter. I was also proud to add my father's
accounts to the BBC World War Two People's Story online.
Dad
served in the RAF Codes & Ciphers Branch and was seconded to
General Bradley’s US 12th Army Group HQ. He landed at Omaha beach after
D-Day and advanced via St. Mere Eglise, Avranches, Versailles, Paris,
Verdun and Luxembourg through to Wiesbaden in Germany. Immediately after
VE Day he was posted to Burma where he was for VJ Day.
1. My uncle Harry Danson (1912-2001) who was one of the many rescued at Dunkirk in 1940 arriving home days later still in the uniform in which he had entered the sea to reach a boat.
2. My aunt Peggy Danson (1922-1999) who served in the WAAF (Women's Auxillary Air Force, manning barrage balloons.
3. My uncle Billy Danson (1915-1990) who served in the navy in World War Two.
3. My uncle Charles Weston (1915-1999) who was taken prisoner by the Japanese in Singapore and experienced the horrors of forced working on the railway.
Portraits of Success
My
student days ended on graduation, - followed four years later by my
brother - and look at those 1970's sideburns! Both our parents left
school at 14 years old, and we were the first generation to go to
university - something our parents were very proud of.
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