Pictured here are Spencer Winter (1919-1936) sitting on the ground with the two dogs, behind him in the wheel chair is Mervyn (Joe) Winter (1912- 1961) and in Joe's lap - Brian Bolton (1935-1987).
Joe was born premature at seven months, resulting in a wheelchair bound handicap (suppose C.P.). Apparently Fred Winter(1879-1933), cabinet maker, was in his workshop when he had a terrible accident with a saw. When Sophie Winter (1881-1964) pregnant with her 7th child, saw the blood, the shock put her into labour and she delivered Mervyn, nicknamed Joe.
Mum has shared many stories of Joe and the joy he brought the family. In this photo you can see his legs crossed on themselves and Brian perched upon his knee. Brian was born Aug 26th, 1935, so if he is six months old in this photo this must be early in 1936.
According to records, Spencer died in 1936. Such a sad story as he is such a handsome, healthy looking man in this photo. He took his own life at age 18. I recently asked Valda and Lesle about their recollections of the stories told about Spencer.
Of course this was in the middle of the depression. Times were tough. Fred Winter (1879-1933) passed away 3 years earlier. Valda's recollection:
We got our information from Mum(Dorothy Winter-Bolton) Spencer must have died not long after that photo was taken. Apparently he was deeply worried about the financial state and Nana (Sophie) was putting him through an electrician apprenticeship which was another financial burden. I remember Mum(Dorothy) telling us that she found his bed still warm and they found him - had hanged himself in a back shed.
Lesle:
Lesle had a slightly different story about how Spencer was found after he died. She thought he was found in his bed. However, that is family info and no one will be able to clarify it now. She also said that Spencer had just sat his final exams and he thought he had not passed. As it turned out, his results came the day after he died and he had passed.
It is so fascinating to think about the lives of our ancestors, and tragic that once a generation passes, much of the detail of there lives passes also. Hopefully in generations to come this will not be the case with digital photos and achieves.
3 comments:
thanks for gathering these snippets together. As you say, they are so easily lost, like flakes of ash blown on the breeze.
I'd completely forgotten about Spencer. gosh. The questions unanswered and the days unlived.
and I still want a print of the Hackwood-Hills photo if we can arrange that somehow. Maybe if you could email a high resolution file, I could get it printed at a photo kiosk
Am working on your Hackwood-Hills photo. Kevin scanned it at highest image today and it created a 315MB file. He said the quality was not to his satisfaction - we will try again - but anticipating the size of the file I suspect I may need to mail you a disk rather than email.
Stay tuned.
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