MONOMONDAY - ENGAGEMENT PHOTOGRAPHS

I think I am just in time for the MonoMonday challenge, so here is my contribution with more family history.

The left hand photograph shows Mr. HCB's grandfather, Alfred William, posing with his sousaphone. He was a slater and plasterer at the time, and we know he played this instrument with a local band, which may have been connected to the Baptist Church he attended. Mr. HCB tells me that his father, Alfred Henry, used to clean the sousaphone every Saturday.

I have found this out from Google: a sousaphone is a type of tuba that is widely employed in marching bands. Designed so that it fits around the body of the tubist and is supported by the left shoulder, the sousaphone may be readily played while being carried. The instrument is named after American bandmaster and composer, John Philip Sousa, who popularised its use in his band.

The right hand photograph shows Mr. HCB's grandmother, Sarah Ellen, and we have pondered why this was taken in Reading, which is about 30 miles from Swindon, where she was born, lived and worked. Having found out that she was "in service" to a Locomotive Superintendent, and probably in a large house in The Railway Village (see my last Saturday's blip) it could be that she moved with the family to Reading, but of course, we will probably never know!

Interesting that although this was their engagement photograph, they had them taken in separate places!

Sadly, Mr. HCB doesn't remember either of his grandparents; he was born in 1942 and his grandfather died in 1943. His grandmother died in August 1944, having been widowed the previous year, and then losing her youngest son, Ernest, during the war in July 1944. However, Mr. HCB says he does remember being told that she died of a broken heart - so sad!

“We are all the product of things we've never seen
and people we never met.
In fact, if just one little detail had been changed in their lives,
we may not even exist!”
Melanie Johnston