1 September 2011

Lionel Britton with His Nephews and Niece

Lionel Britton has been referred to extensively in this blog, and much is known about his literary endeavours.

He had a long-term relationship, perhaps as long as forty years, with Sinead Acheson. However, he never married and had no children of his own. Indeed, to my knowledge there are no pictures extant which portray him with any of his own family, apart from one where his Mum is at stage left.

This little picture however, despite its indifferent quality, makes an important point. Here is the quirky, argumentative Uncle Lionel in a very normal and touching family photo.

Lionel was not easy company as he would declaim and denounce rather than discourse, but in this scene he has taken a moment to relax with his brother Reginald Percy Leopold Britton (1889–1970, known perennially as Bob), at back right; his nephew Robin Carton Leopold Britton (1921–1927), bottom right; his nephew Duncan Campbell Britton, (1915–1976); and his niece Flora Jean Britton, (1919–2008).

We have no date for the photo, but you may conclude from the ages of the children that this was taken in about 1925.

2 comments:

Dr Tony Shaw said...

That is a brilliant photo all the same! A bit worrying though: he's wearing a tie. He hated ties!

Snatch51 said...

Ties are one of those things: I hated them but had to wear them all through my schooldays.

Lionel probably hated them for the same reason, he had been obliged to wear them for so long.

Now here he is in this picture wearing one, and it was probably an occasion of some sort, where he proves that he is not above being in thrall to convention from time to time.

We do of course have him elsewhere on this blog in a studio portrait when he was about 18, complete with...tie!