'Bob, Maisie and Flora Britton with a mystery couple', by Robert Hughes

Here is a photo with good definition for a change but artistically it sucks, if only because a tree is growing out of Bob Britton's head and we look over the shoulder of Flora Britton and wonder whether old Von Hindenburg has found exile in Malvern.

The date here is likely to be the very early WW2 period, or even 1938. Bob looks young and happy and not long afterwards he suffered illness brought on by anxiety about the war and the possible bombing of his home, and the use of poison gas. Even if this were 1940, he would need to be 51, and he certainly looks no older.

Seated to the right of Bob is Maisie Britton (May Duncan Britton née McCallum (1891-1878): my grandmother). Maisie, like many a good socialist, was rather taken with celebrity so why did she keep this picture? It would make sense if the other couple in the group were in some way famous later, or notable...but who were they?

On the reverse of the print is a stamp from Norman May, Malvern, so it's quite likely that this scene was somewhere in that area.

Can anyone identify the couple, or shed any more light on what this gathering was all about?

Probably the best photographers had gone off to work on air reconnaissance or morale-boosting work at the front line. The individual who took this seems to have had a good camera with a first rate lens, why could he/she not have opened it up and thrown the tree out of focus along with the hideous house and Hindenburg?

A possible answer is spontaneity! You see a good shot and you take, while if you start worrying about the technicalities it is gone. At least my granny kept this picture for forty years and my mother for another thirty; more than you can say for most holiday snaps.

Marie–Antoinette Thomas and Atelier Verhassel, Brussels

This picture of Marie Antoinette Thomas, (née Goffin), grandmother of Lionel Britton, is not new to this blog as the old girl sent it out to all her children and grandchildren and we have seen many examples.

However, this postcard-sized print is obviously the one received by my grandfather Reginald Percy Leopold Britton, (Bob), and cherished even beyond his death in 1970.

Its importance lies in the fact that on the reverse is the imprint of the studio where the image was produced, so that we now know where Marie went to have her portrait taken.

The address might have been too obscure to be deciphered but for the fact that there is indeed to be found on the internet an Atelier Verhassel at 4 Chaussée de Gand, Bruxelles.

Marie was not necessarily born on Christmas Day 1843, and in fact that would have been unlikely if only because it would have conflicted with census evidence which suggests she was younger. She could have been entering her 80th year, or just have been about 80!

A postcard from as early as 1907 shows very infirm handwriting, but it is unclear whether this was written by Marie or by Samuel Thomas her husband. If Marie wrote all the inscriptions out by hand she was very patient and diligent, and note how the same formula is repeated on front and back of this. A slightly more plausible scenario is that an amuensis, for example a doting niece acting as carer, did all the actual penwork for her.

We would love to hear from anyone who knows stuff about the Atelier Verhassel!

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.