Harry Hoad: no picture is worth a song...
Dec. 16th, 2007 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperance...and for those of you not keeping up, we have a Song for Harry! ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
papersky wrote the words, carandol wrote the tune and recorded it. I am astonished, and moved beyond words...
- but it is not totally impossible that we have a picture.
I said before that there were a couple of photographs in the bible. This was inaccurate, twice over. Before this whole story reaches any further, let me correct my own idiocy: it's not actually a bible. I knew this, I had just forgotten it. It looks like an old Victorian family bible, and it is unutterably filthy; these two together caused me to be heedless this time around. Actually, it's a Victorian illustrated edition of The Pilgrim's Progress.
Be that as it may, clearly it served the same purpose, a repository of memories and loss; and I have now found four photographs between its pages. I had originally meant to give one away, which is why I was being discreet about 'em, but actually I think they should all stay together, so here's the list.
One is a portrait turned into a postcard, as they used to do: an Edwardian woman in her best hat (which is a fabulous confection). I'm guessing as to period, of course, but anyone who knows about costume should find it reasonably easy to place.
The others I guess (there's a lot of guessing here: visuals are not my thing) to be contact prints from glass plates; they are fuzzy and faded, and the one with the car registration plate is clearly reversed.
That one shows a Very Old Car, with a man completely indistinguishable behind the wheel and the windscreen, a woman in the passenger seat and a little girl standing beside, leaning against the door. Another man in the distance, by a wall. An expert would identify the car easily (registration number BB 1632); the people I suspect must be forever mysterious.
The second print (mounted on white paper and black card) shows five men with three motorcycles and perhaps a sidecar. They're got up with waterproofs and caps (with goggles!), but they might just be identifiable, against other known images.
And the last print? Is a round one, clearly meant for a frame; and it's a young man in jacket and tie. At first glance, I'd have said he's older than twenty, but I'm not at all sure. Visuals not my thing, and particularly judging people's ages; and I tend to overestimate young people from long ago particularly, because all the cues are wrong (jacket! tie!). And of course I want this to be Harry, though I really don't suppose it is.
I stress again, these are all old and faded and blurred; it may be impossible to reproduce them in any format worth the posting. But I might try.
papersky wrote the words, carandol wrote the tune and recorded it. I am astonished, and moved beyond words...- but it is not totally impossible that we have a picture.
I said before that there were a couple of photographs in the bible. This was inaccurate, twice over. Before this whole story reaches any further, let me correct my own idiocy: it's not actually a bible. I knew this, I had just forgotten it. It looks like an old Victorian family bible, and it is unutterably filthy; these two together caused me to be heedless this time around. Actually, it's a Victorian illustrated edition of The Pilgrim's Progress.
Be that as it may, clearly it served the same purpose, a repository of memories and loss; and I have now found four photographs between its pages. I had originally meant to give one away, which is why I was being discreet about 'em, but actually I think they should all stay together, so here's the list.
One is a portrait turned into a postcard, as they used to do: an Edwardian woman in her best hat (which is a fabulous confection). I'm guessing as to period, of course, but anyone who knows about costume should find it reasonably easy to place.
The others I guess (there's a lot of guessing here: visuals are not my thing) to be contact prints from glass plates; they are fuzzy and faded, and the one with the car registration plate is clearly reversed.
That one shows a Very Old Car, with a man completely indistinguishable behind the wheel and the windscreen, a woman in the passenger seat and a little girl standing beside, leaning against the door. Another man in the distance, by a wall. An expert would identify the car easily (registration number BB 1632); the people I suspect must be forever mysterious.
The second print (mounted on white paper and black card) shows five men with three motorcycles and perhaps a sidecar. They're got up with waterproofs and caps (with goggles!), but they might just be identifiable, against other known images.
And the last print? Is a round one, clearly meant for a frame; and it's a young man in jacket and tie. At first glance, I'd have said he's older than twenty, but I'm not at all sure. Visuals not my thing, and particularly judging people's ages; and I tend to overestimate young people from long ago particularly, because all the cues are wrong (jacket! tie!). And of course I want this to be Harry, though I really don't suppose it is.
I stress again, these are all old and faded and blurred; it may be impossible to reproduce them in any format worth the posting. But I might try.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-16 04:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-16 04:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-16 04:47 pm (UTC)BTW, found you via
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-16 05:21 pm (UTC)You might want to hold off -
Date: 2007-12-17 12:09 am (UTC)What I found
The record at:
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1614312
tells us his father's name was Henry too - Henry Alex Hoad says the casualty record. (which also tells us that his mother was still living.)
Leading us back to the census. When he was 4 years old he was living on Campbell Street with his father (recorded as Henry R J Hoad and his mother Sylvene and his little brother Walter who was two. This looks right - censuses are really unreliable about things like middle names and so are other public records.
His father was a tailor (a worker rather than an employer) and both his father and mother were born in Newcastle and they were 31)
Speculation - may have been the intersection of Campbell & Cromwell since his household is the first one listed on Campbell.
Anyway, I've sent a query to someone who has Henry A R J Hoad listed in his family tree to see if he knows any more about our Henry.
This is through Ancestry's connection service - I don't have a direct email. They provide forwarding.
Oh, and a candidate for our Henry's mother is Sylvene Ellis first quarter 1870 10 b 67 birth record. And we find her also in Westgate in the 1871 census - her father John Ellis was a stone mason and only a few pages away from our Henry's father.
It's sort of sad - the family appears to have named the oldest son Henry over at least four generations there in Newcastle.
Re: You might want to hold off -
Date: 2007-12-17 08:44 am (UTC)Also, - which would make perfect sense, given the local habit of using mother's maiden name as a forename (cf Robson Green, etc).
Also also, we don't have a Campbell St or a Cromwell anything in this area any more, they were probably victims of redevelopment (tho' we do have a Campbell Place, which may be a pointer). On the other hand, the casualty record puts the parents in Sidney Grove at the time of Harry's death; that's about one minute's walk from my house. Larger houses than mine, better for raising a family; mine would be ideal for, say, parents to move to when the kids were gone...
Re: You might want to hold off -
Date: 2007-12-17 12:55 pm (UTC)