Show your ancestors

[plasticjock]

Hi psyberyeti - what is yer gt uncle's cap badge? Good lookin chap!

Looks like the badge of the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

[cazmanian_minx]

Here's mine:



The baby is my father, Robert Jones, so this must have been taken some time after April 1933. His mother, Gertrude Gladys Nash, is standing behind, then her mother, Beatrice Dobbs, is seated on the right and her mother (my great-great-grandmother), Jenny Groux, on the left. Jenny was born in Switzerland, my G-G-g/f met her while he was doing national service, fell in love and brought her back to England to marry her. Family rumour has it that she was a Romany gypsy whose family had settled and bought a vineyard out there - and looking at her face, I can believe it!

[Raven]

@ Rheghead,
cool work colourizing the pic, what time was it from?
@Psyber,
A cool dude indeed! I bet Haydn has broken many hearts with his charming smile :-))
@ Cazmanian Minx,
Great pic and great story!

[scaraben]

Wifie ............ I couldn't be sure but I'd guess that the cap badge is that of the Royal Scots Greys ?

[psyberyeti]

Hi psyberyeti - what is yer gt uncle's cap badge? Good lookin chap!

Hello wifie, he was a cool dude. His regiment was the Sherwood Forresters I believe. He was a really nice chap and had a gorgeous old P6 (or P5) Rover. I thought he was a fantastic bloke. When he died just a few years ago I could not bring myself to go to his funeral.

[psyberyeti]

This is my granddad from my dads side, just old enough to go to war. Photo from about 1916

Hello Raven, I love the photo, but when you look at it first of all it looks like he has pushed his bayonet through an A4 sheet of paper. The photographer should have got him to move over just a little.

What is that below the flowers on his jacket. Flashlight? It's hung by a clip from his button, so it looks like it is something they would need more than a flashlight.

He had a decent pair of boots as well.

[plasticjock]

Hello Raven, I love the photo, but when you look at it first of all it looks like he has pushed his bayonet through an A4 sheet of paper. The photographer should have got him to move over just a little.

What is that below the flowers on his jacket. Flashlight? It's hung by a clip from his button, so it looks like it is something they would need more than a flashlight.

He had a decent pair of boots as well.

There is a flower inserted into the muzzle of his issue rifle as well as flowers tucked into his tunic. This was fairly common practice for German soldiers about to leave for the front and having their photograph taken.
The torch is a standard issue flashlight issued to soldiers at the front. There were three different coloured discs, red, blue and green that could be rotated across the light source, depending on the requirements.
Although the bottom of his tunic looks untidy, there were pockets on the inside for carrying his 24-hour rations, spare socks and other items that didn't require him to undo his knapsack, greatcoat and blanket pack on his back.

[Beat Bug]

What beautiful photos! I just love looking at them! We found a lovely one when we were renovating a cottage in Balintore a few years ago. We contacted the local newsletter, and found out who the people were. I'll dig it out and post it here. Along with a really gorgeous one of my grandmother!

[Raven]

@ Psyber,
you have very good eyes! First I didnt get at all what you ment by the A4 sheet though, but you are right. It probably was a day where all the new soldiers had had their photos taken and the photographer just did not pay that much attention anymore?

My guess would have been that this was a flash light too, but I was not sure. My Opa died 2 years before I was born and so I never had the opportunity to speak to him about things like that.

@ plasticjoc,
thanks for the enlightening explanation that is much appreciated!

[Bruce_H]

Nice thread, to help it along, please meet my grandparents!

James Henderson


Mary McDonald

[Raven]

Lovely Bruce H, keep them coming!

[psyberyeti]

Hello Bruce, I hope you don't mind if I say that your grandmother was absolutely gorgeous.

Anyway, my uncles and grandfather 'packing heat'.


and then at the party afterwards.....


Their lives are a world away from what I know now.

[psyberyeti]

...and my grandfather went to the same phographer as Raven's grandfather. Same gun passed between the photo subjects.


Just like now, our armed forces are photographed laden down with all the necessay equipment before they leave, and then they get to a 'police' zone all their safety and comfort equipment miraculously does not turn up.

[Bruce_H]

Great photos! I love the one where they are "packing heat". What is odd about my grandmother is that my brother's daughter is a dead knockoff of her. I don't know if history repeats, but genetics seems to rhyme!

As a former member of the short haircut club for men myself, I can attest to the huge change between "going to war" photos and the conditions at the front.

Just two words to spice up a modern day military picture... camel spider

Bruce H

[wifie]

Wow bruce funny you should say those to words on the Org! Lovely pics btw!
Psyber - more fabulous images of a bygone era!

[2little2late]

Hello Bruce, I hope you don't mind if I say that your grandmother was absolutely gorgeous.

and then at the party afterwards.....


Their lives are a world away from what I know now.

The chap on the far right of photo looks like Robert Mitchum.

[htwood]

My great gran Catherine Stewart Milne is on the right, she's with her cousin Christina Miller. Christina Miller's dad was Elder Miller of Halkirk parish.

[plasticjock]

My Gran, Johan Munro, on the left, and her sister Barbara around 1912 in Thurso. They later went to Glasgow into domestic service.




This is my Gran, on the left, and her sister Julia making hay on a farm near Thurso approx. 1929.

[Buttercup]

Thanks for sharing all the photos folks, I just love looking at them, especially if there's a story behind them. Keep them coming!

[Rheghead]

This is a photo on my grandmother's wedding day. The boy on the extreme left is my father's cousin who was at the battle of Monte Cassino and was awarded with the Victoria Cross.