Photographed from Behind!

For a number of years, I have held a small collection of black and white negatives that belonged to my late parents. When I got a decent scanner in the summer, I paid more attention to them and found there were a couple of hundred of negatives. Some were taken in 1950 in Benghazi around the time of my birth, others were difficult to identify.

I scanned a representative dozen or so negatives and was stunned by what I saw. My mother as a young woman cuddling a boyfriend on the local recreation ground, my maternal grandfather on a day out at the coast (he died in 1940) and a photograph that has troubled me. It is of woman pushing a pram, walking alongside a much older woman and an elderly man. To the side is what appears to be a chicken house. I couldn't recognise who they were as they were photographed from behind which was very frustrating.

Tonight, I looked at the photograph again and suddenly recognised two of them - my mother and my grandmother. The unseen child in the pram must be my much older brother who was born in 1938.

I still have to identify the old man. My heart says it is my grandfather, but I have only ever seen him photographed from the front. An ex-soldier, he always stood upright and had a military style waxed moustache! Perhaps if I compare his ears with photographs of grandfather I might be able to link the two. I'll let you know how I get on.