This photograph was taken in August 1947 at a party to celebrate the 21st birthday of my mother, Ruth Betty Ada Cullingford. She is pictured in the centre holding the cake, with my father, Norman Maitland, behind her – they were engaged to be married the following year.
Jack Cullingford, my maternal grandfather, is standing on the far left with hand on hip, and my grandmother, Mildred Howe, is sitting in front of him. The young lady on the right wearing a striped dress is their younger daughter, Patricia Cullingford, who would have been 16 years old at the time.
My father’s brother, Roy Maitland, is standing behind him, and their father, Frederick Maitland, is sitting next to my mother. Roy’s wife, Dorothy Reeves, is positioned on the ground on the far right.
Also at the party are several members of the Cooper household, who became my grandmother’s surrogate family when she lodged with them following a move from Suffolk to Portsmouth shortly after she married my grandfather. It was rare that a childhood anecdote recounted by my mother and her sister did not include a mention of the Coopers in Telephone Road, and my middle name*, Caroline, was given in honour of Granny Cooper – she is the elderly lady sitting in the centre on the ground and her husband, William, is the white haired gentleman standing on the right.
* in case anyone is wondering, I was named Emma after my mother’s favourite Jane Austen novel.
Sleuthing Notes 