Don meets his prospective in-laws

These are all stamped with the same number on the back, Eileen is wearing the same clothes and the setting is the same (outside the front door of the house in Chapel Lane) so I think they must have been taken at the same time.

Don is not wearing medal ribbons, so I think these pictures must predate him being posted to Caen in October 1944. (For more about Don's military service, particularly the army dance band he played in, see my blog http://bandof14aod.blogspot.com/) Before going overseas, Don had been based at the Ordnance depot at Old Dalby. It was during his time there that he met Eileen, the future Mrs Mackie. Had it not been for the war, your blogger would not have been born!

The other gentleman seen here is Eileen's father Bill (William Kilby) Bailey. There will be more about him later. He worked at Stanton Ironworks and was a keen cricketer; I still have some of his trophies. He died when I was very young, but I dimly remember him.

Eileen goes to the seaside

In the first picture, Eileen is holding a brochure with the word "Skegness" on the front. This was the nearest seaside resort to Nether Broughton. There is a stamp on the back "Walking Pictures". This must have been a photography business that took pictures of people passing by then sold prints to them; a Google search for "Walking Pictures" and "Skegness" finds a number of similar pictures. Eileen is not even looking at the camera. I do not know who the other woman is. The second picture shows Eileen and her companion with Eileen's mother Lizzie. Both young women are wearing the same dresses as in the previous picture, so I guess this was taken on the same day.

The third picture was clearly taken on a different occasion and probably when Eileen was much younger, judging by the age of her companions. This might have been Skegness, but I know her family sometimes also visited Mablethorpe so this is another possibility.

The Hart girls, some years later

Lizzie (Bailey), Annie (Harris) with daughter Joan (now Ward), Mabel (Purves) with daughter Margaret (now King), Emily (Wright, previously Main)

The Hart girls

My grandmother Elizabeth (Lizzie) (Mrs William Bailey) was one of five sisters. The others were: Emily (Mrs Joseph Main, later Mrs Herbert Wright), Annie (Mrs Fred Harris), Mabel (Mrs James Purves) and Lucy (died aged 11 years). I believe there was also a son who died very young. Both their parents were from Melton Mowbray and that is where the family eventually returned. But they travelled around a bit. Emily was born in Hickling, Notts, Lizzie and Mabel in Hunslet, Leeds and Annie and Lucy in West Derby, Merseyside. I do not know who the baby is, but I believe the others from left to right are Emily, Annie and Lizzie.