This studio portrait probably dates from the early 1900s.
Henry was very much a country man: a man of few words, working his allotment, knowledgeable about nature, mending watches for other villagers and working in manual jobs. Before their marriage in 1911, Florence was in service as a 'tweenie', a maid who worked between the kitchen and the parlour.
They lived their family life in a two-up two-down terraced cottage in the rural village of Claydon in Suffolk. Of their five children, one went to war and did not return. Florence lived to be 91.
They are my maternal grandparents, of whom I have fond memories.
My grandfather seemed to me to be a wise man and I wonder how he could have used a good education.
How strange they would surely think us with our digital cameras and paraphernalia. I have given this more than 100 years old photo some processing and framing.
What a wonderful photo of your grandparents. I am in the process of scanning very old photos and I am going to put them all in a photobook. Quite a job I can tell you because I have to 'embellish' quite a few of the photos too.
That's lovely. I have happy memories of my grandparents too and although they left school when they were very young, they certainly were very clever. I learnt a lot from them! Wonderful memories and I love the treatment you have given this Fav
I was thinking exactly the same as some other comments here. This portrait looks quite modern for the time it was taken. Where you often find a very serious posing with perhaps the wife looking not quite as important as the man I think your grandparents had a very modern marriage for the times. Your grandmother looks as thought she has character a mind of her own....equal partners...who knows how far they would have got in different circumstances!
Maybe an avant-garde professional photographer from the early 1900s! Interesting.