Family Heritage
Many of the early photographs that have come in to my possession in recent years seem to focus around World War’s 1 & 2.
Grandparent’s coming of age around 1916 and my father turning 18 years old, 6 weeks before World War 2 started, clearly dictated much of the rest of their lives. All of my family came from what is now West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom.
My father, Arthur Roebuck, center with fellow RAF Air Crew. He was a Radio Operator and flew in aircraft such as Wellington’s and later Halifax’s.
Maternal Grandfather, Harry Rathmell. Also shipped to France in The Green Howards (also known as Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment, frequently known as the Yorkshire Regiment) .
One of my Grandparents and an unknown fellow soldier at a hospital in Sheffield UK. It is understood he was at Vimy Ridge in France in the trenches and suffered shrapnel wounds.
I can recall years later being told that Grandad could not lift one of his arms.
Wartime Wedding. My parents 20 November 1943, Westborough Methodist Church, Dewsbury, Yorkshire UK
Coronation Program 1953
1914 and the impending storm. A family memebership
Wonder what happened in that season and to the young men?
Paternal Grandfather, Harry Roebuck. Shipped to France, probably after this photograph was taken around 1917.
Great Grandparents born 1867 & 1868 respectively. Arthur Willie Scruton & Clara Scruton. Likely taken at their home in Pudsey, West Yorkshire.
A British WW1 propaganda leaflet.
My Grandfather explained in a note to his Mother, that this was dropped from a British hot air balloon, intended for the German lines but landed in the British trenches!
It is a peom from the 1870’s written by a Prussian peot telling soldiers not to trust their leaders.
Someones new pride and joy!
RAF Flying Training Command Reunion in 1949. I wonder who never made it to go to the Reunion?
My father is seated right in the center in front of the top table.
World War One Medals.
(The Great War For Civilisation – struck me a hundred years later as an interesting phrase).
Probably a Church outing during Dewsbury Feast Week (always end of July) around 1930’s. The Feast Week was when all the Mills and Factories closed.
Timing Is Everything
Family visit to the Top Of The World at the Twin Towers, New York City. The date? Just 3 weeks before 9-11.