Looking for clues in an old family photograph .......... George and Nellie Davison in Ireland in 1916

Many of us will have a family picture like this dating from the Great War.

This one of George and Nellie Davison was taken in 1916.

In late 1915 George was posted to Woolwich and from there to Ireland and ultimately the Western Front where he died just months before the end of the conflict.

And the picture is just one of an extensive collection of material stretching back to 1899 and on into the middle of the 20th century.

It includes school reports, a testimonial as well the notes he wrote to Nellie from Chorlton when they were “walking out” and letters and postcards sent from 1915 to 1918 and continues on with the inevitable official correspondence.

Nor does it finish there because there are also letters written by Nellie, medical bills and much more stretching into the 1950s.

There may be similar collections but this one allows us to track one Manchester family pretty much across the 20th century and brings together much of that everyday material which is often lost.

Now I am not an expert at decoding family portraits like this, but there are many clues which confirm what I already know about the family and in particular George’s war service.

His cap badge spurs and bandoleer offer information up on his regiment and the stripe helps further date the picture.

But it is the name of the photographer on the reverse which fastens our picture to sometime in 1916.

This was J.S. Kingston, of Kilborgan Hill, Bandon which is in County Cork just south of the city of Cork.

Kilborgan Hill is a pleasant road that runs up from the square.  Mr Kingston is listed in the directories* from 1913 till 1922 at North Main Street,Bandon, and in time I should be able to locate the photographic studio, but for now it is enough to know that Bandon was where George was stationed for most of 1916.

And their presence together in Bandon also confirms what I had begun to conclude from some of Nellie’s letters that she had spent time in Ireland and may well have been with him later when he was sent back to Woolwich.

In turn it might also explain the total absence of any letters for 1917.  I had at first assumed that they were lost but it is equally likely that the couple were together during the year.

At some point she sub let their cottage in Romiley and returned to Manchester, perhaps to be close to family and also refers in a letter to renting a room “while in Ireland and London.”**

I had no idea that she had moved around the country so much during the war and begs the question as to how common this was.

All of which will take me back to his letters.

The evidence suggests that she was not in Ireland for long because the photograph was sent to her back in Hulme.

But in the meantime I shall close with another look at the photograph focusing on the studio props with the painted backdrop and Nellie’s formal pose holding the piece of paper.

Picture; family portrait Bandon, 1916, from the Davison collection, courtesy of David Harrop

*Guys Cork Almanack, 1913 and Postal Directory 1921

**July 7 1919