In Iran

Gradually I’ve been transferring my father’s printed memoirs into a digital format and uploading onto Ancestry along with scanning and adding various media I can attribute to him- photos of the important rites of passage, as well as family , cars , pets, houses we lived in. He documented it all, including every car’s registration plate!

This way it’s much more accessible for all the family for the future . I will then move onto my mum / grandparents etc. It’s time consuming but enjoyable and satisfying.

I’ve found (re) reading his memoirs , written in 2008, 6 years before he died, absolutely fascinating. Of course with it being Father’s Day tomorrow it’s quite poignant. I think he looks very young despite being 39 here!

This photograph was taken in 1975 in possibly Tabriz in Iran . At this time he was seconded from BR for whom he worked in London, to Transmark and then GEC, to sell expertise, particularly training, his specialism by now (although by trade he was a mechanical engineer) to foreign railways , and made several trips to Iran. He even managed to get me an Iranian pen friend- a young man he chatted to in a local park! I was 14, and we corresponded for many years.