Recognisable faces

Last week, on the Welcome page of the website, was displayed a photograph which had first appeared earlier last year.  We would like to know more about it, should anyone recognise the subjects.

This is a still from a home movie shot in the late 1950s.  It was introduced to the public when that movie joined others in a compilation for a video called "Bygone St Albans", designed for nostalgic  home viewing.  Among the Abbey and Verulamium scenes, model boat regattas and a variety of events recorded in the warm summer sunshine some of us remember from that time, was a brief pictorial record of a picnic.  A family picnic: mum, dad and two children; but we don't see dad because he's behind the camera!  The narrator states that it was taken at Marshalswick and narrows it down by helpfully referring to a location beyond Woodstock Road.  Sandpit Lane is mentioned, and the partly wooded scene is on a hill slope.  This might be at Newgates, or the woodland near Skys Wood Road.

The end of the video helpfully provides credits,  presumably people who have lent or given their home movies.  So, in the hope that one or more of the names mentioned might jog someone's memory, even if you do not recognise the three subjects – or the school uniform badge – here they are: Edna & Charlie Garden; John & Nancy Everett; Suzanne & Rob Cranley; Nigel & Joan Wedgebury; Hilary Tootell; Joan Stanley; Walter & Margaret Wright.

Another photo has made a previous appearance, and can still be found on the website's photo library page, is this one.  A Home Guard unit for the east side of St Albans was first of all based at Oaklands House at the start of WW2, but was

soon re-located to a training hut at the junction of Central Drive and Hazelwood Drive.  Being an unfinished housing estate there was plenty of rough open space, and the opportunity to dig trenches.  This is the hut in the photo, on the roof of which someone has wittily painted "Home Sweet Home."

Of the twenty-one men lined up, the name of only one is known – front row, second from right.  I recognise him, because he was my father.  Although there is a slight possibility of one or more of the men still being alive, it is much more likely that sons, daughters, nieces or nephews of the volunteers will be looking at this photo.  Do you recognise any of the platoon?  Or have any other photos of Home Guard activities from WW2 been passed down to you?

Email: saoee@me.com