His elegant Mama, called Topsy by her family, was a younger sister of the Dorothy I showed you in an earlier Sepia Saturday post. Her real name was Eliza Jane and this portrait must have been taken in the late 1920's, for my husband was born in October 1929 and I believe Bertie was already dead by then.
I wish I knew more about the story. The little I do know was told me by Auntie Dorothy, who also gave me the picture.
Topsy went on to have three more children, two boys and a girl, and tragically, after the birth of her daughter, she developed what in those days was called 'milk fever'.As a result she never recovered enough to take care of her children from then on, and another sister, Auntie Lettie, came to Portsmouth to look after them.
Topsy's husband, Arthur, died before the end of the war, as far as I know, and the children were sent to stay with relatives in South Pool, in Devon. There was only one bomb which dropped on the village, and my husband , then a youngster, was on his way to bed holding a lighted candle when it fell.
He never spoke much about his childhood, but he loved life in the country, working on his Aunt and Uncle's farm, and he would have liked nothing better than to be a farmer when he grew up... Anyone can dream!
This photo is really well-composed. Little Bertie looks like a life sized doll in this shot. It's more than a little heart-wrenching to know that he didn't not survive childhood.
ReplyDeleteWe now assume that the majority of childhood diseases can be cured , but as little Bertie and Isabel , my mother's baby sister found ,life then was much more precarious .
ReplyDeleteI have a wonderful story to share about your husband and his love of the country. When he came to visit us in NZ in the nineties, we took him down to Rotorua, where they have a fabulous show at the Agrodome with sheep- shearing, etc. Keeping in mind that he was a very reserved man normally, when they asked for volunteers to milk a cow on stage, his hand went up like a shot and he was chosen. There he was sitting on a little stool on the stage, oblivious of the hundreds of people watching, doing a grand job and happy as Larry! The compere was very impressed. I doubt he saw many tourists with such skill.
ReplyDeleteLittle Bertie is just about the most adorable healthy and hearty looking boy I have ever seen. I loved him instantly, and I'm so sad his life was so short.
ReplyDeleteLook how sweet he is there in that photo...and that gorgeous head of hair! So many childhood diseases we don't even think about any more. His mother certainly was beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAt first read, I thought you were going to say that the bomb scared your hubs carrying that candle and he dropped it starting a fire. Oh my. Glad that didn't happen!
Lovely photo, Jinksy!
This is such a sad story Pen. Bertie's mother was so serenly beautiful; what a tragedy that she became ill. How do we survive these things?
ReplyDeleteSuch a sad story but a well-told snippet of family history. No doubt your husband never forgot that moment of candle-lit terror.
ReplyDeleteI love reading these, love hearing about your relatives and their lives. So sad that Bertie was not long for this world -- he looks so sturdy in the picture, doesn't he? Having had a son myself, I can close my eyes and envision picking him up... What I will not envision is the empty arms when he's gone...
ReplyDeleteAnother lovely post. These pictures always make me think.
Pearl
A beautiful photograph and a sweet, if sad, story.
ReplyDeleteMy mother, who was born in 1901, used to wear her hair in much the same style as Topsy's.
What a lovely picture. Your MIL was beautiful and Bertie adorable.....sad that he passed so young. You were much younger than your husband Jinsky, I really enjoy reading these types of post...Hugs
ReplyDeleteJinksy : Perfect marriage of photograph and words. There is so much to see in that photograph, in the expressions, in the background, in the body language. I thoroughly enjoyed your post - but there again, I always do.
ReplyDeleteCherubic is an apt description. He looks like a little cherub.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly does look healthy enough, but it was different then. When I look at old cemeteries I see a lot of young deaths. My mother lost two baby sisters around 1920.
ReplyDeleteWhy not try searching for the death certificate of that dear little lad in the photograph - that should tell you the reason for his death. In those days it was often pneumonia or diphtheria.
ReplyDeleteSuperb photo. I love the lace collar on her dress.
ReplyDeleteAdorable photo of Bertie. At least they didn't dress him as a girl.... like many photographs of that era portrayed.
ReplyDeleteI have one of my dad at a similar age and he was dressed in a velvet suit and a huge lace collar. Some little boys even had to wear dresses.
Maggie X
Nuts in May
Poor little boo - that snapshot in time - oh how lucky we are not to know what is ahead of us, even if we think we want to know it!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully and poignantly expressed here.
Beautiful picture of mother and child. Sad to read the story that accompanies it.
ReplyDeleteBertie's curly mop is adorable :-) How sad that he and Topsy died young. A beautiful photo. Jo
ReplyDeleteGreat picture but so sad...
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful child. Probably such a joy for the little time she had with him. Topsy is very elegant - I love her hair! Sweet Sepia!
ReplyDeleteLittle Bertie is adorable, with his curls and round cheeks. What a sad story, though. There are many child deaths in my family history but I have no photographs to go with them. I think photographs make people more real to us because we can put a face to a name. I wonder if you can obtain a death certificate for Bertie. It would probably tell you date and cause of death, at the least. Go for an obituary next if you want to learn more.
ReplyDeleteSo very sad about Bertie he was such an adorable little tike and he did look very heathly indeed! His Mommy was stunning and your story is very interesting, thanks!
ReplyDeleteHe is just the most adorable little boy. How sad that his life ended so soon. And the rest of the family history is pretty sad, too.
ReplyDeleteBarbara
This is such a lovely photo; it's hard to think of all the sadness that was to come. Lovely post.
ReplyDeleteChildren died young back then even from Chicken Pox.
ReplyDelete