| The graphic on the right is taken from
a postage-stamp sized photo I've carried round in my wallet for many years.
It was probably taken in September 1936 when Carolus & Catharina De
Smit were visiting the UK - which would make Sylvia Catherine Sanders
at the front about 3 and a half years old.
Standing at
the back, left to right:
1] Rose Annie COSSINS (nee
SANDERS); wife of Hubert - see 3] below. She would have been 38 at the
time.
2] Rosina WHITLOCK (nee WALSH);
she would have been 50 at the time.
3] Hubert COSSINS, husband of Rose
Annie (nee SANDERS) - see 1] above; age unknown, but presumably around
his early 40s?
Sitting (left
to right):
4] Maria
Anthonette SANDERS (nee DE SMIT), who would have been 28 at that
time.
5] Catharina
DE SMIT (nee SCHMELZER), who would have been 61 at the time and
was the wife of:
6] Carolus
Franciscus DE SMIT who would have been 64 at that time, he was
a Captain of the Loodswezen (pilot-boats) in the Schelde Estuary in The
Netherlands.
at the front:
7] Sylvia Catherine SANDERS (later
to become TARLING) who would have been 3 and a half.
NOTES: The photograph was
possibly taken by Edith KNIBB who was a photographer and friend of the
family, who with her husband Jack lived close to Hubert and Rose COSSINS.
It could be taken in the back garden of Hubert & Rose perhaps?
When Carolus and Catharina DE SMIT were visiting the UK, which they didn't
do often, they stayed with their daughter Maria Anthonette SANDERS. So
presumably Albert William SANDERS was at work and the four at the front
went over to visit the COSSINS.
Presumably Rose and Hubert had been to Vlissingen with the Battersea
Gang. The start of the Vlissingen connection was probably when
George WHITLOCK (senior) got a job on the Queenborough to Vlissingen ferry
way back in the 1880s and Rosina's husband Will WHITLOCK was born there.
The WHITLOCKs got to know the DE SMITs in Vlissingen and so presumably
that's why Rosina went to visit.
Perhaps Will Whitlock was at work when the photo was taken? So how
come Hubert COSSINS is there? He was a civil servant and he looks
to be well-dressed and the shadows are long so I wonder if he had just
arrived home from work? |
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