Scanned from a letter that came with this photo.

This could be a little bit of Stamford history ( Paternal Side)


We have every reason to believe that this photograph was taken in the year 1937. The occasion was to celebrate the Coronation of King George VI, father of todays Queen. The men all appear to be wearing non working type clothes which would only be used on what was know as"high days or holidays'The party hats and bunting in the windows shows this to be a special day.

The man in the bottom right of the picture is my father (Edward known as Ted) and it is most likely that the boy he is holding is his youngest child, me,. End of the middle row left hand side, a man with a moustache and wearing a strange party hat is my Grandfather John.

So there we have Grandfather, Great Grandfather, Great Great Grandfather in one photograph.

Great Great Grandfather John was a horse handler or Ostler who came down from Huntingdonshire some time in the 1800's to eventually find work with the London Omnibus Company, when at that time all buses were horse drawn. At some stage of his life he was badly kicked by a horse and partially crippled and thereafter had to use crutches. As a boy I remember him well, he was a big upright man spoke loudly (embarrassing so at times)because he was deaf When he was quite old he was in hospital and they had to take his clothes away because he kept getting out and going to the Public House nearby. This didn't stop him, they once brought him back in his pyjamas!!He was in his nineties when he eventually, died.

Great Grandfather Ted, served in the Royal Navy during the 1914-1918 war and afterwards when unable to get regular employment joined the Royal Canadian Navy.
When he finished his service with them he was entitled to a free land allocation in Canada, but he never took up the offer. By trade he was a pewterer and plumber working as a bar fitter for Charrington's the Brewers.


Alexander Richard Stamford.

September.2005.