This is another photograph from my own collection. Continuing a theme that I seem to have been following recently it is another group image.
When I first looked at the photograph I was convinced they were nurses, possibly in the grounds of the hospital where they worked. The more I have studied the image I am less certain.
I now wonder if they could be domestic servants – house maids, kitchen maids and cooks.
Why do I think that, well:-
• the woman in the middle of the back row appears to be wearing a chef’s hat
• the woman on the right side of the middle row seems to be holding what looks like cleaning materials
I have a couple of other photographs of this same group and although you can’t make it out very well the woman front right is holding a tennis racket. I suppose it is possible that hospital’s had tennis courts but I think it is unlikely.
I’ve seen my mum today and she can’t shed any light on the photograph at all. We have plenty of domestic servants in our family tree so I am assuming that perhaps one of the people is an ancestor.
But as with many of the photographs in my collection it will probably forever remain a mystery. As piece of social history maybe my descendants might find it as interesting as I do.
you don't choose your family 