This is the start of the story I think I’ve already
posted the full story
The Wedding
The wooden steeple of the old stone church
pointed into the clear winter sky and a small cluster of red and yellow flowers
sheltered against the wall. Here and there a few short rows of old headstones
cast long shadows onto the closely cropped grass. It wasn't the old headstones
I was interested in though; it was the church itself. For here on Friday 21st
February 1942, a marriage had taken place. Then, there was no time for
tradition, no time for the banns to be read. The groom only had ten days’
embarkation leave, so they were married by ‘special licence', obtained just the
day before at a cost of ten shillings. A
lot of money then, when an unskilled worker would have earned less than five pounds
a week. Generally, a soldier needed the permission of his commanding officer to
marry and in wartime this was usually agreed to. There is no evidence of this
on his military record apart from a change in his next of kin from his mother
to his wife.
Here's why I am I revisiting it?
Recently My Heritage allowed anyone to colourise
previously black and white photographs for free. I took advantage of the offer
and among those that I uploaded to their site were two taken at the wedding of
my father’s sister, the other was one that I suspect was taken about the right
time, as to date there are no known photograph
of my parent’s wedding.
These three photographs made me think about how my
parents own wedding compared with that of Dad’s sister.
My parents George Arthur Harvey and Georgina Mary Hall married
on February 21 1942. My aunt Florence Rose Harvey married Herbert Pipkin on July
20 1943, my mother was one of the
bridesmaids (indicated by arrow).
The photograph of Florence’s wedding looks like it might
have been a costly affair, just look at the bouquets the women are carrying,
and their dresses look that way too. The bride’s father (indicated by arrow) was
one of the groomsmen which makes me wonder if he is standing in for my father
who might not have been able to get leave from the army. I’ll never know the
answer to that one.
By contrast my parent’s wedding probably occurred with
some haste as my father was on ten days embarkation leave, and they married by
special licence meaning that there was no time for the banns to be read.
My parents
Wedding of Dad's sister
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