RANDOM MEANDERINGS

I saw this photograph for sale by a New Zealand vendor and had to purchase it.  Such a lovely thing and such a shame there is no photographer identification.         I'm theorising that this dapper wee [probably blonde haired and blue eyed] fellow's dad died in World War 1 albeit he looks rather a happy wee chap with his little thumbs tucked into his pockets.  It seems his mother, has made him into his fathers 'mini-me', wearing almost a miniature uniform with a 'kerchief tucked into his breast pocket.   A flower that looks suspiciously like the Oxeye daisy is placed in the left lapel - maybe a favourite of the man whose memory inspired the photo originally?  Or maybe to form a connection between the wee boy and the lost sailor - being that daisies represent innocence, gentleness and purity.   An animal skin appears to be hiding a chair or similar that the boy is standing on and...

  Pre war photo of George McQuay "...with fine determined face and almost sartorial fastidiousness just before he enlisted from Auckland with the Fifth Contingent."     We have such a better understanding of the impacts of post traumatic stress disorder  [PTSD] nowadays.  One of the tragedies of World War 1 was that of course mental illness was not perceived as an illness per se.    The impact on men suffering after witnessing horrific sights and/or battle shocks has become well known now.  The angst caused to many families with men arriving back home having to recuperate, changed forever can't be imagined in some cases - very few support systems in place at that time.  I have recently found the story of a Kiwi soldier who appears to have suffered much.  After absenting without leave, he was considered a deserter, only to have that status rescinded in 1928 when he was identif...

How fascinating I find trawling the pages of paperspast Yesterday was no exception when I became totally sidetracked from the research I was doing on  one of the hundreds of graves I've photographed and picked up on a rather sad story. This news article drew me in. The thought of these 2 wee boys alone in the world and feeling unwanted, so I thought I'd do a 'quick' search and see what I could find on them...well I should know by now that I get totally absorbed and it is NEVER a quick research *grin*.  The following  took up my whole afternoon and night but such a fascinating journey and of course more questions are posed rather than gaining all the answers. Firstly, let's start with John and George's dilemma... Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7018, 21 March 1888, Page 6 NEGLECTED CHILDREN. –John Vivian Cogar [sic] and George Vivian Paul Cogar, [sic] aged eight and five respectively, were charged with being neglected children.  Inspector Pender sai...

Approximately 300 soldiers are being disinterred. There has been some concern that the project is running behind time due to weather, bad planning of toxic runoffs etc and the employment of a 'cheap' archaeological firm. However the blog seems to discount this. Follow the news from Fromelles. http://www.cwgc.org/fromelles/blog/ Check out the descendant database http://www.fromelles.net/ Wish i was there helping out! Would be fabulous!