Granddad

At the time the photograph was taken, in July 1921, he was thirty-four years old. He stands with his left hand in the pocket of his dark suit jacket. His right hand, holding a cigarette in a long holder, rests on a wooden studio prop made to look like a rustic bridge. The backdrop is obviously fake: the feathery tree on the left, the misty horizon, the foreground flowers, all look as if they might have been copied from a 19th century academic painting.

He is wearing very shiny patent leather shoes and what looks like spats (or else the shoes are of two-toned leather). His shirt collar looks to be of the stiff kind, maybe backed by celluloid, and he has a cravat, probably silk, with a stud just under the knot. In his breast pocket he sports a handkerchief, and under the jacket he wears a light-colored vest or cardigan with buttons.

He is a dapper man, seemingly very conscious of his appearance. His head is long and narrow. Already he is going bald at the crown. His ears stick out somewhat. He has a firm chin and a steady gaze, a fine nose and a full lower lip. Except that he has less hair and a darker complexion, he looks quite a lot like his fourth son (my father) at the same age.

It is quite likely that at the time the photograph was taken, he was already a widower, for otherwise his wife, the great love of his life, would have been in the picture. She died, reportedly from puerperal fever, following the birth of the last of their five children, and the only girl.

This is the only photo of Grandfather as a young man, as far as I know. He passed away in 1943.