Gwen’s commentary on a collection of loose Wells and Penfold photographs – continued from her commentary on the Archer Albums, and made on 08.01.2002 (onto a large audio cassette) and transcribed onto small ‘Philips’ cassettes and typed-up by pba in January 2007. This is to be saved as a separate document under the above title (Gwen’s commentary on a collection of loose Wells and Penfold photographs)
I think I’ve still got some ancient ones (laughs) ... which will be very difficult to name. I wish I knew who they were. But.... it’s better to say something, so that they represent somebody.
(Edward: they came from Aunty... ) Yes. They came from Aunty Roz. I’ll say more about them when I..... So, for the moment, that’s it.
Today is the 8th of January and the year 2002, and it’s four o’clock and a very dull day, and it’s getting dark already. Now, I’m not going to do Aunty Roz’s collection now. I’ll do those after these. I’m now going to talk and it’ll be very briefly on some of them. My mother’s family. The Wells photos. From an old Victorian album, which really was so dilapidated it fell to pieces. So Edward has pencilled-in a number on the back of each. And approximately they’re in chronological order.
So, I’ll begin with number 1 (V1) and number 2 (V2), I’m sorry to say I don’t, I haven’t the least idea who they are. The, the young woman (V2), seems to have a family resemblance, but, I, I’ve no idea who she is, or the child (V1).
GAP BETWEEN ABOVE INTRODUCTION AND THE PARAGRAPH RELEVANT TO WW1 AND THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE:
We come now onto No. 16 (V16), and this, yes this is Harold. I can quite well remember him. Because they lived at Merstham. South Merstham. And he had the nurseries there. He sort of followed his er father’s ... you know, traditional er business. And we occasionally went there during the war. The First World War. And I can well remember one little incident. It, the grounds ran beside the London to Brighton railway. And um, I remember my uncle Harold coming in one day.... rather flustered, and he’d evidently had some telephone call, and he said that ‘the Germans had crossed the Marne’. Now I, I was only young. I didn’t know what the Marne was. I only guessed that they were somewhere near the village. And I just went crazy with fear. And I think they had a job to save me from crossing the railway line. Although there weren’t so many trains in those days. But that is just one little incident, I well remember. Of wartime. And um, the next one...
Ends.pba.Fri.5.9.2014.at.14.47.hrs.
The Wells Family Tree showing William Wells, chrysanthemum grower’s descendants:
