Saudade.photos

Lost & discarded family albums - Photographs are our only defence against time.

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Also in this series are two plates showing a young infantryman who must surely have been a friend of the family, if not kin. I can say little about him except how pleased he seems in the topmost image and in the second, quite relaxed. He wears puttees over his boots and a uniform of serge with stars on the lapel. There is a vertical braided bar on his left cuff and a badge on his epaulette.

UPDATE: NOT stars but maple leaves of course!  Scott Marchand of The Great War Forum advises me of the following: "He is a Canadian Machine Gunner, likely the 1st, 2nd or 4th Machine-Gun Battalion based on the formation patch on the shoulders. Has seen action based on the strip on the left sleeve and is in a nice privately tailored OR's service dress jacket." Wonderful!

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Studio portraits from the earliest years of the 20th Century from the same batch of glass negatives as the previous two posts. Could this be the young RFC officer and his sister? I think it very possible.

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More stunning images from medium glass-plate negatives. These show a young man clearly emulating T.E. Lawrence and also in WWI uniform of the Royal Flying Corps  newly-formed Royal Air Force, Aerial Observer. This is an aircrew member whose duties are predominantly reconnaissance. The term originated in the First World War in the British Royal Flying Corps, and was maintained by its successor, the Royal Air Force. An air observer's brevet was a single wing with an O at the root as seen on this young man’s uniform. Observers were also issued with weapons, and expected to engage with enemy aircraft in the early days of military aviation. Over time, the role changed and separate gunnery specialities emerged. Air observers were trained at the Air Observer Schools. Many WWI flying ‘Aces’ began as observers, as did others when there were not enough places available to become pilots. Given the extreme dangers involved it is highly probable this young man died in combat before November 1918 regardless of whether he flew the plane or accompanied the pilot - the dangers were identical. I do not have any means of identifying this young man from these beautiful and professional images. Yet I believe him to be the sister of the lady from the previous post.

UPDATE: Andrew Upton and ‘Frogsmile’ of The Great War Forum inform me that he is wearing the uniform of an officer c.1918/1919 in the newly formed Royal Air Force. We see here the very first pattern of 1918 service dress cap badge, which was all metal. In 1919 all of the badge apart from the eagle was made of gold bullion wire. Rank was originally worn on the cuffs and also designated by bars either side of the cap badge (the latter were soon eliminated, as here), so unfortunately nothing in shot to say what rank.

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Among seventeen glass-plate negatives I came by this weekend were this stunning group of three shots of an unknown young woman in orientalist pose. They are incredibly beautiful. The original cardboard box bears the label Marion’s ‘Record’ Plates, Marion & co., Ltd., Soho Square. This information dates the images before 1921, possibly around 1914. These images are published and seen here for the very first time.

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Dynic Works factory Glasgow c.1931. We still don’t know the location of this factory although we believe that 59 Robertson Street or more possibly an address in Port Dundas are good candidates. The door pillar has a number 3 stencilled upon it. Sing out if you have any information.

The truck in the foreground clearly belonged to the company and the decals read: ‘Dynic - Mains Units Chargers and Accessories’. Displayed underneath is the legend ‘Sonodyne Radio Grams’.

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Dynic Works Assembly Floor, Glasgow c.1931. Sonodyne 50 platter auto-changers in foreground; J.C.W. Transmitter middle right; drawing office to rear. The company is a bit of a mystery. We know that Glasgow businessman, Alfred Dukinfield Jones and his company Jones & Stewart, decided to build a luxury range of radios and radiograms. The flagship product being an auto-changer radiogram for which he filed a US patent in 1930. The plan seems to have been to set up a showroom on Bond Street in London to build up sales and a reputation before exporting to the USA. The business may well have been a victim of the 1929 crash as it looks like it quickly ran into cash flow problems before being wound up in 1931. We still don’t know the location of this factory although we believe that 59 Robertson Street or more possibly an address in Port Dundas are good candidates. 

Much of the research for these images is courtesy of John Holder to whom I am indebted.

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Sepia postcard of unknown soldier with pith helmet and number 3843 inscribed, dated 1918 verso.

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Eastgate St., Chester c.1918, taken from the Eastgate itself and looking due North. The policeman directing traffic and wearing white helps dates the image.

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Tim, a five-year-old English boy peeps out from beneath the hands of his family’s Ghanaian man-servant as he receives a hair cut on the verandah of Airport House, Accra in 1957. Father worked for Barclay’s.

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A small cardboard box with a folding top, the whole no bigger than a hardback novel. On the inside lid is a written in a childish hand: Eunice Goode, Royston, Paston Lane, Walton, nr. Peterborough. Contents: dozens of small photographs, negatives and assorted tea and cigarette cards. This striking 3x2″ image of a young woman stands out with inscription, verso: “To Eunice, love Judith xxxx” Is this Eunice or Judith? In any event, we can know from the address that a Eunice D. Goode was registered on a birth certificate in 1928. Twenty-one years later she married her sweetheart, Kenneth C. Dolby.

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This fellow is a chap, a cove, a type perhaps - but he is not a bloke. He is a serious fellow given to occasional hijinks and he wears his moustache accordingly. This man is a scientist. His dark hair is neatly parted to the right and his bushy eyebrows show definite signs of middle age. He wears tweed jackets over jumpers over silk ties and he smokes filtered cigarettes. At this moment he is in contemplation and has fixed his interlocutor with a steely gaze behind his large-frame bifocals. This fellow is a chap.

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7x10″ profile portrait of a beautiful young Danish woman taken at Jensen Atelier on 23rd July 1941. Found this in a pile at Shepperton car Boot Sale. I have been unable to decipher the text at the foot or under the black lines.

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Here’s a marvellous picture of laboratory horseplay. Don’t try this one at home, kids! I’ve reported the gentleman to health & safety.

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A new album of photos I purchased last weekend is full of workplace images in what appears to be a UK laboratory during the early 1960s (?). Quite hard to date and to pin down any specifics but this may be from the Coates Brothers laboratory in Easton Street, London WC1

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Roy, British Virgin Islands, 1947. What can we know about this man? He was married on March 31st, 1951 at Shirley Methodist Church (it was a wet wedding) and moved in to his first home at 52 Links View Road, Shirley in May of 1952. His son, Timothy, was born in March 1953. In 1956 he moved his family to Accra, Ghana to pursue his career with Barclays.

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Doug is the father of the teenage girl whose ‘scrapbook’ we are viewing. These images of him as young athlete date from the 1920s. We have a studio shot of him attired for what appears to be rugby and an outdoor garden shot in combative stance as pugilist. 

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Meet Uncle Herbert. With his handlebar moustache and matching handlebar eyebrows he certainly looks avuncular. Straight out of silent movie central casting for a bluff old duffer in support of Laurel & Hardy. Sporting a wing-tipped collar and a candy-striped necktie with a Windsor knot, there’s a mischievous twinkle in his eye.