As I’ve worked through the old family photos it’s been a challenge to identify many people, especially as you get farther back in history.
I think one of the challenges with photographs has always been taking the time to identify details about the photo. When it’s first taken, this seems redundant. “Well of course that is cousin Mary, and obviously, it’s in Springfield, in 2018. That’s so obvious!” This seems perfectly logical today. But what happens 50 years from now. Or 100 years?
I’ve been lucky that some of the photos had some descriptions on the back.
This image of 4 men I believe contains my grandfather, Timothy Healy. Also in uniform is his cousin Sam Pearce, and directly in front of him is his cousin Harry Billington, and in front on the right is the husband of his cousin Bertha, Charlie Clarkson.
I’ve included the back of the photo, which helped me piece this together. I believe the blue lighter ink was written my mother Joyce Florence Wordsworth, nee Healy.
The mystery comes from the postcard below. This photo is actually on a postcard.
The card is written by “Tim”, and signed “Your Brother, Tim”. It’s written to Mr. Alfred Boniface. So, the question is, would this mean his brother literally, i.e. this is Tim Boniface, or figuratively, i.e. what one soldier might say to another soldier, as in ‘your brother in arms?’ The post mark on the card is 1916.
All his cousins remind us of the higher mortality rate at that time in human history because his grandmother married three times. The average life span for a man in 1900 England was 47 years old, while today it’s closer to 78. So, the image of 4 men is my grandfather with his half cousins. She had one son (Tim) as a Healy (my grandfather), one son as a Billington, and one son and one daughter as a Pearce. Confused yet? Men were dying much faster in those days, and this was before either of the World Wars hit England. With the dynamics of the day for women, it was obviously beneficial to be married.
The date on the photo of 4 men is 1917. I’ve got some opinions and the consensus is that it is in fact the same Tim in both photos, even though the Tim in the later image looks somewhat different.
It’s taken from a different angle with different lighting, which might explain part of it. It is also during World War I and Tim is a soldier. We’re all read about the horror that was trench warfare in WWI. Does my grandfather look physically different because of the trauma of fighting in that war?
Regardless, if it indeed my grandfather, he lived through the war, met and married Florence Galloway and they had two daughters, Peggy Blanche Healy and my mother Joyce Florence Healy.
I believe my mother wrote the description of this photo in the lighter ink because she refers to him as her father. Someone else used darker black ink to fill in more details.
There is great mystery in photos like this. What were these people thinking? Did they have the same concerns, and anxieties, and joy that someone might today?
And there is great history in these older black and white photos. I am grateful with this photo in particular that someone took the time to ensure that someone looking at the photo 100 years after it was taken would be able to identify who was in it.
My grandfather served in the Army in WWI. My Dad served in the Royal Air Force in WWII. There clearly is a sense of duty to serve their country in my family.
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