One of the excellent things about staying with my father during the last ten days has been the unearthing of a whole lot of family photos I've never seen before. Here are William and Sarah Barber - Sarah, also known as Jennett (my middle name is Jennet, thanks to her, though a "t" inexplicably got lost somewhere along the way) - my father's maternal-side grandparents. He remembers William, and knew Jennett reasonably well - after all, from the age of about 9, he and his mother and brother went to live with them, although William died fairly soon after that. They are likely in Sheffield here, although they moved around a good bit after that, since William was a Railway Detective with the Midland Railway (maybe my love of detective fiction can be traced back to him?). He was born in Walsall, son of a silver-plater, and fought in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War before marrying Jennett. She came from East Rudham, in Norfolk, where her father was an agricultural laborer - and most likely with the agricultural depression of the late 1870s onwards he moved to Sheffield, where he worked in a steel mill. I've no idea how the two met.
I just think this is a remarkable portrait because it - about two by three inches - seems to predate the box camera, yet it's not a studio portrait. It's unusually informal - at least Jennett looks relaxed enough. I've only seen one semi-relaxed portrait of William, when he was taking part in a fishing competition. Among other gems an ambrotype and a tinted tintype emerged from the depth of a cardboard box ... a completely unexpected set of treasures.
How amazing, I knew he worked on the railways, but not what his job was. I've not seen any pictures of him and Jenett before. What a find! X
ReplyDeletethere are several more of him - getting fatter and more self-satisfied by the year, I'd say ... Jennett became much more intimidating than she seems here ... xxx
ReplyDelete