Paddy in pictures
Today is my father's 108th birthday, and some of you will remember that I've posted some of his writing in previous years.
So this time I was more organised than usual, and well in advance I typed up a short story which he wrote in the 1920s - only to change my mind yesterday, and decide to run a picture gallery to correspond with the one I did on my mother's birthday last month.
This is a sketch of my father at three months, by his mother, and already oddly recognisable.
And here he is with a full set of siblings - he's the taller boy on the right, and judging by the size of my aunt in the pram, the one who died in December, it must be 1911 or 1912, when he'd be seven.
This is a portrait of him as a teenager by his aunt, Florence.
And this photo appears to have been taken at Oxford, in the 1920s.
Here he's in North Wales in 1935; he wrote two walking books, on North Wales and the Peak District, in the 1930s.
And here he's in uniform; he trained with the Ulster Rifles and was sent to Egypt, but was assigned an administrative role so I don't think he ever saw any action.
This is after the war, and his second marriage, to my mother in 1947.
Here he's playing with me at Fletcher Moss in the 1960s; I remember we ran into a Guardian photographer who decided to take some photos.
And this photo shows him at work at The Guardian; he retired in 1969.
And finally, back on the fells; a rather washed-out photo from the 1970s showing him near the summit of Scafell Pike.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
So this time I was more organised than usual, and well in advance I typed up a short story which he wrote in the 1920s - only to change my mind yesterday, and decide to run a picture gallery to correspond with the one I did on my mother's birthday last month.
This is a sketch of my father at three months, by his mother, and already oddly recognisable.
And here he is with a full set of siblings - he's the taller boy on the right, and judging by the size of my aunt in the pram, the one who died in December, it must be 1911 or 1912, when he'd be seven.
This is a portrait of him as a teenager by his aunt, Florence.
And this photo appears to have been taken at Oxford, in the 1920s.
Here he's in North Wales in 1935; he wrote two walking books, on North Wales and the Peak District, in the 1930s.
And here he's in uniform; he trained with the Ulster Rifles and was sent to Egypt, but was assigned an administrative role so I don't think he ever saw any action.
This is after the war, and his second marriage, to my mother in 1947.
Here he's playing with me at Fletcher Moss in the 1960s; I remember we ran into a Guardian photographer who decided to take some photos.
And this photo shows him at work at The Guardian; he retired in 1969.
And finally, back on the fells; a rather washed-out photo from the 1970s showing him near the summit of Scafell Pike.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.