Or does it ?
Most pictures from the past will raise questions that can be very difficult to answer. For instance, if I was to explain that the picture above of my Great Grandfather and his six sons has no women in it, yet there were a further six siblings, five girls and another boy, two who died in infancy, what would you be asking?
Where were the four daughters, and where was my Great Grandmother? Why no women in the picture?
I see a portrait of a patrician with his six sons, in a photographer’s studio. The photographer was probably used to this style of picture and had various props and chairs to use including the throne that John Thomas Wilcox is sitting on. He sits proudly in the middle with his sons surrounding him. A symmetry of sons. Three on each side with a pair behind each seated brother.
However, my Great Grandfather was not a patrician in that sense. He may have looked like one. He was throughout his life a Painter and Decorator. A working class tradesman . John Thomas Wilcox and his wife, Lenna Ann, married in 1872. During the following twenty years, my Great Grandmother gave birth to 12 children. The dates of birth will help me to try and date this photo and the possible ages of the six brothers.
To the right of John Wilcox is Herbert, sitting on the back of a chair. My Great Uncle Herbert was born in 1874 and he married in 1907. He was a Railway Clerk/Porter/checker during his working life.
Behind him in military uniform is Sydney James John who was born in 1880 and until he came out of the Army after the First World War saw action in South Africa and France. He then became a London Transport Tram Driver.
Next in order of age is Frederic William Francis, born in 1881. He is seated on the left of his Father. Frederic sits with a mature confidence and looks at ease with himself. What he did and where he lived in London is not very clear at all. Records have been a challenge to find. What is very clear is that in the 1911 Census return for Wales, Frederic is living in the coal mining village of Sirhowy in Monmouthshire and he is working in one of the several coal mines in that valley.
It is becoming clearer to me that this photo was taken before 1911.
George Harold Victor is standing behind Frederic on the far left of the photo. He was born in 1887 and at the age of 15 in the 1901 Census return George was described as a Newspaper Office Boy. However, in the same 1911 Census return as his brother Frederic, George is living at the same address as his brother and is working in the same coal mine as a Timberman’s Labourer, underground.
The photo can therefore be dated between 1901 and 1911.
Standing to the right of George, behind his Father, is my Grandfather, William Arthur Leonard. Born in 1890 he was three years younger than George. William was 13 in 1903 when he had to apply for a copy birth certificate under the Factory and Workshop Act to provide evidence that he could be employed. The school leaving age was 12 at that time. I have no record of what he did but my cousin Sue has told me stories that she learned from our Grandmother . It seems that he was selling newspapers on the street, frequently without any footwear. These stories conjured up a picture of poverty that I have found difficult to perceive in this photo. But the stories were given to us as a part of our childhood and all good family history research is based on stories that are handed down.
I think William looks older than 13 and therefore I think the photo was now take after1906.
Lastly, to the far right of the picture is John Richard Howard, born in 1893. John had a military career in the First World War and then became a Dairyman in Kensington running his own shop with his wife Jenny. In the 1911 Census return John, aged 18, was living at home with his parent and alongside his 21 year old brother William, was described as Dairyman.
So, looking at the photo again, particularly at William and John, I am trying to guess their age at say 19 and 16 respectively. This would date the picture as being taken in around 1909. This would have allowed the time for Frederic and George to leave London as they did and start a new life in Wales.
When I originally researched this family, my ancestors, I had prepared a research document to share with my family members. Before he died, my brother Peter responded with a lot of marginal comments about each and every person, recording his own memories about what he had been told. He believed that John Thomas Wilcox was an enigma:
Peter wrote that in January 2021. Since then a lot more has been discovered about Frederic, George and Margaret who left London to live in Wales under a new surname. I know now that it probably was not a shame that can be attached to my Great Grandfather, but that is another story. However, I love Peter’s description that he was a ‘complete dipso’. That is a story that we have all grown up with in the William Wilcox family.
The photograph at the top of this post is a copy of the original that was in the possession of a second cousin once removed who lived in Newton le Willows. He died in 2022. It was sent to me by his cousin in Tredegar who has been providing me with all the history details of the Francis brothers and their sister (nee Wilcox) who came to Wales and created a unique family dynasty of their own).