On The Track Of My Great Uncle Harold

[poliphilo]

I have decided he was gay. If he wasn't he's not around to set me right. Nobody is. And though I don't believe I ever met him I may be the last person standing who knows he ever even existed.

Until now.

The records of his life are terribly sparse. I have the usual birth and death certificates and a few- a pitifully few- photographs. I've posted one of him as a soldier. Here are most of the rest.



I can't even be entirely sure this is him, but, then who else could it be? Who else in the family was this dapper? Who else took his holidays in North Africa? It says on the back that this was taken in the Coronation Mosque on 24/7/21 by Hedley Mitchell Esq. Who he?

Well, perhaps he's the chappie in the white suit with Harold in this next picture...



We're still in North Africa for the next snap. High jinks are being had. Harold is in the middle. At least I think that's him but none of these pictures have his name on them. Is that a golf club he's holding? If so, why? Are we having a  game of donkey-golf?



And now we're back home in Blighty. This is Harold with his parents and much younger sister Joan. If there were no other clues you'd know him by the tilt of his hat.



Shall me follow him to the end? I hesitate to post the next because it's such a blurry image- below my standards, really, but so far as I can see it's the only picture I have of him as a (comparatively) old man. He died in his early 50s.



That's him on the left- the smartest man at the wedding (though whose I have no idea.) Next to him in order are his sisters Joan, Ethel and Kathleen and Ethel's husband Laurie White. Missing from the line-up is his sister Violet, my granny. Perhaps she was behind the camera. 

P.S. Since posting the above I've done a little more research and- well I never- it was my parents wedding. That would explain why my granny isn't in the shot. She wasn't any old guest, she was the bridegroom's mother!

Comments

[sovay]

Harold is in the middle. At least I think that's him but none of these pictures have his name on them.

The face looks right. And the way he's always got something in his breast pocket, even if it's just a dapper handkerchief. In this one picture, I think it's the mustache, he reminds me of Basil Rathbone.

Is that a golf club he's holding? If so, why? Are we having a game of donkey-golf?

Maybe they were trying to fake up a game of polo.

Thank you for tracing him through these pictures. I hope you can find other records—if you know his name and regiment, for example, you might be able to follow him through some of the war.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Polo, yes, that's a possibility. Wot larks!

Military records. Good idea. They're often available online. Thanks for the suggestion.

[sovay]

Military records. Good idea. They're often available online. Thanks for the suggestion.

You're welcome!

When I threw "Hedley Mitchell" into Google out of curiosity, I got a lot of information about a department store in Erith. It's difficult for me to tell from the photo at the bottom of this page if he could be the gentleman in the white suit—he doesn't quite look it to me, but the mustache is a confusing factor. And of course the gentleman in the white suit could be somebody else entirely.

(Then my brain went down a rabbit hole of wondering whether "Hedley Mitchell" could be an alias or an in-joke and whether it would be like going around the U.S. checking yourself into hotels as "Mr. Sears," all of which is just fantasizing.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you're on to something.

My grandfather was born and grew up in Erith. And I believe my grandmother's family had moved there- probably after her father retired.

I think I need to see if there's more to be learned about Hedley Mitchell...

[sovay]

My grandfather was born and grew up in Erith. And I believe my grandmother's family had moved there- probably after her father retired.

Oh, interesting. I had no idea.

I think I need to see if there's more to be learned about Hedley Mitchell...

Let me know what you find!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you've already found all there is to be found on the internet.

Maybe there's something in the family archives. I'll keep on looking.

[sovay]

I think you've already found all there is to be found on the internet.

There were two Hedley Mitchells of Erith: senior, who founded the department store, and junior. So far the one mention is all I can find of him. He may be a complete red herring (born too late to take pictures in 1921), but I thought you should know.