Too Late to be a Proper D-Day Post

[steepholm]

Something else I discovered rummaging through my mother's drawers [pulls Frankie Howerd face] the other night was this:



It's a message of thanks from the queen to Mrs Bowman (my grandmother), in appreciation of her taking in evacuees during the Second World War. There must have been millions of these things printed, and I'm sure many families carefully preserved them, but I'd never seen or heard of them before - so this is for interest.

What I'd actually been looking for, for the benefit of Captain Lewis's great-granddaughter, were the pictures of my grandfather at his first wedding, some time in the 1910s, which is as near as I can get to his 1908 self. I failed to find them, which is a bit of a mystery, but I did come across these WWII pics, one in full-on Captain mode, and one in shirt-sleeves, taken in Caen a few days after D-Day. I find the contrast between them quite telling.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Wow--these are fascinating.
If not for the nose, I'd think the pictures were of two different men.

[steepholm]

The hat makes quite a difference!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He's very Spencer Tracy in the first one.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean! Something about the expression of the eyes, more than the physiognomy.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

They are all interesting.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm happy you find them so.

[sovay]

It's a message of thanks from the queen to Mrs Bowman (my grandmother), in appreciation of her taking in evacuees during the Second World War.

That's incredibly cool.

these WWII pics, one in full-on Captain mode, and one in shirt-sleeves, taken in Caen a few days after D-Day. I find the contrast between them quite telling.

He looks like an actor in the first one. In the second one, he looks like some capable guy.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I like "capable guy". And he was, of course. That wasn't a time for posing for the camera, so I assume he's really concentrating on whatever-it-is.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Capable--and exhausted.

You have such family treasures!

Nine

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Capable--and exhausted.

That shows too. He told my mother that the Channel (which he crossed the day after D-Day) was thick with the bodies of American soldiers. This was a day or two after that.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

He's two different people. This says a lot about war, doesn't it?

I've not seen one of those messages, either, though I assumed they existed.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

This says a lot about war, doesn't it?

It's eloquent, yes.