From the beginning

Photographed in 1910, the sign in the shop window says ‘W. S. Barker, Naval Tailor & Outfitter’. The smaller notice above says ‘Gents Clothes Cleaned and Tailor Pressed’. W.S. was Walter Sidney. The reverse of the photograph lists eight family members and those shown here from left to right are his mother-in-law Sarah Meadows, his wife Emily and daughters Louise (Olive) and Winnie. The picture on the right is a detail from the main photograph.

The two photos on the left are marked ‘Imperial Studio, 44 Freemason’s Road, Custom House. E.’ and the one in the middle is inscribed by persons unknown, ‘3 months May 1918’; obviously by someone who couldn’t afford an up to date calendar as the subject wasn’t born until February 1919. On the right we have a photo taken on board SS. Burma no doubt en-route to its eponymous destination. The reverse is endorsed in pencil with the words ‘Mrs. Knight, Steer’. Couldn’t have been short for steerage class could it?

The photo on the left is undated but taken in Burma circa 1929. The reverse is marked in pencil. ‘Rangoon, LRK’. The adjacent one that looks as if it could be a school photo is also undated but endorsed in spidery pencil, ‘DAD LOOKS GOOFY, ROSEMARY’. What sort of horrible little girl would do that? The formal uniformed photo above is dated 1941 and those below are marked ‘Boston Manor 1941’.

Vera, Leslie, Olive and Gladys Knight.

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