Every day I love to look at the old photographs which Lynn Heiden uploads to Twitter and Facebook as they give us a fascinating window into the past. Often she is able to trace details of the lives of the people in the photographs, using census returns, trade directories etc.but sometimes there just aren't enough clues. I was particularly struck by this group of unknown children so just for fun I thought I'd make up character sketches of them.
Teddy was born early in the century, a much loved second
child after the death of his brother.
Photographed, age 2, he is yet to be breeched so his mother has dressed
him in a spotless, lace edged frock, cleaned and pressed by the maid, but he
can’t resist trying to slip off his uncomfortable shoe. Later his sister Muriel will be born, but he
will always be his mother’s favourite and she is so glad, that just as he is
about to be sent to France to fight, the “war to end all wars” ceases. Sadly he decides to become an army officer
and dies early in the Second World War, leaving a wife and four children.
Little May is very nervous, as she stands leaning against
the wicker contraption in the photographer’s studio. Why does she have to stand so still in front
of that strange “camera” and why has the man hidden behind a tablecloth? Ma says, “It’s for Da. He’s gone a long way away to “fight for his
country” and we need to send him something to help him remember you.”
Stanley has always been a character. Almost as soon as he was born he had a dirty
laugh and he loves to take off people he knows, in his broad accent. Borrowing his Dad’s pullover and his best hat
and umbrella Stanley is trying to look like the rent man who comes round weekly,
licking his pencil and writing down the payments, so he’s using his copy book
as a prop.
Connie is usually happy.
Mother takes her everywhere, whether it is helping at the church bazaar
or going to buy a yard of ribbon at the haberdashery shop. Her brothers have gone away to boarding
school, but Connie goes to a small local school with other little girls. She likes the scene behind the bench in the
photograph, as it is the largest picture of the countryside she has ever
seen. Soon Jim and Georgie will return
for the holidays and she can run after them through the fields.
Gwenne was born just after World War One when her father had
returned from the war. Daddy was always
very quiet and would frequently disappear for long walks. Gwenne can’t remember seeing him smile,
although Mummy said that he used to love taking her dancing. He died two years before this photo was taken
but Uncle Fred, Mummy’s brother, has always been more like a father to Gwenne. He’s nor married so he always comes to
Gwenne’s house, every week, for Sunday lunch. Ten
years later, he will give her away in marriage to young Hugh whom she’s known
all her life. Hopefully when Hugh goes
to war in 1940 it will not change his life as drastically as it did to Gwenne’s
father.
Elsie was born in London.
She has two brothers and two sisters.
She is the middle child but she is also the boss. She looks after her youngest siblings while
her mother does the laundry and housework and she expects her big brothers to
do exactly what she tells them. As soon
as she can, she wants to help her father run his stall in the market. She has the voice and the confidence to
attract customers to the, “lovely juicy apples” and she loves the jolly
atmosphere in the market street. It
won’t worry her that she will need to be up before dawn to fetch the produce
and she is prepared to work hard. One
day she might have her own shop.
Please visit Lynn's Waffles to see her research on other pictures from her collection.
