Thank you: as I say, his writing does get more poetic: have just posted what I think will be penultimate chunk & will post last chunk. After that will post excerpts from my Grandfather's WW1 diary (he was Edward's son in law). Very major thanks coming from Mum by the way to you: she is delighted with those pictures & I have printed them for her to put into her hard copy of the transcript. We were talking about Alfred yesterday: his is an odd & obscure story. We know he married his parents' maid, but moved from Yardley in Birmingham to Liverpool to do so, thence to Boscombe where their second child was born & then to Bulawayo... My Grandmother who was a great communicator had no links with either her uncle Alfred nor his children & the only details we have were that she had a set of African weapons from him: presumably he died before Edward, left them to him & thence to her. All but one went to Edward's youngest son when Grandma died but the one remaining knobkerrie is the only evidence of his life we have. My second cousin Terrie found some evidence of his children on passenger lists in the early 20th century but that's it. I assume that the business with the maid made him persona non grata & only Edward kept in touch. I don't know how he afforded a house in a fashionable area given that he was younger son of a shop owner and probably disinherited at that.. all rather mysterious. The story of the area though does not surprise me: I live in Leamington which had lots of attractive Regency houses which became too big to afford & hence run down. If you have time & a little camera next time you are near there, a photo would be really nice, but please don't go to any inconvenience!
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