The mystery and the monkey (can you help identify?)

[AndrewMartin]

The following is a re-post of a thread found in http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,242669.msg1322264.html

Perhaps it is better suited here?

...


In my collection of old photographs is a picture of my Gt Gt Grandfather, James Martin (1851-1934), with a group of men... and a monkey.

It's a fascinating photo (not least as some of the faces are quite terrifying and some of the people in the foreground look like understudies for The Seven Dwarves!) but also because I have no idea what was going on, that was important enough to warrant a photo being taken.

Here's a link to the photo: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=726492313&size=l

Go ahead and download it or zoom in on it to have a better look if needed.

I have read the word "Albert" on their caps and they have ribbons attached to the caps too, so i'm guessing its some special occasion. My Gt Gt Grandfather was a platelayer for most of his years and I suspect that this has something to do with the railways and/or a Royal visit?

..but can anyone shed some/any better informed light on this mysterious photo.


Interesting also to see a pet monkey on my Gt Gt Grandfather's shoulder - particularly as my own father hates them!

[patrish]

Hi Andrew,

I am no expert but the men wearing the boater tye hats seem to also be wearing fishermans jumpers, so might the Albert be a boat 

[Gadget]

I agree with you, Patrish. Maybe the monkey was their mascot 
  or at least owned by the man who's shoulder it sits on - but He's different and looks in a different focus that the other men  .  Do you have the original photo Andrew?

Gadget

[patrish]

The men wearing the flat cap hats could well be railwaymen I think.

 I did wonder if perhaps the Albert was a lifeboat 

[AndrewMartin]

yes, it seems that there's a few possibilities.

The man at the top of the photo, with the monkey on his shoulder, is my Gt Gt Grandfather, James Martin (1851-1934), so with that in mind, I'm guessing that it was probably taken in at least the 1880s.

James was a railway platelayer - not precisely sure what that means but i dont think it's everso unusual, particularly with the railways rapidly expanding during the victorian period in Cambridgeshire.

A number of the men look like train drivers or station masters,  going by their uniforms, however, the men/boys seated at the front and the men in the boater hats appear to be of a different occupation - some have suggested sailors (the National Railway Museum in York has guessed them to be sailors rather than railwaymen).

I did wonder whether it was to commemorate a visit by Prince Albert.

I'm discounting the possibility of it being of some dramatical event as those uniforms look too comfortable and worn in to be for a performance.

I dont have the original, although did have it once to get a scan of it. It was card mounted but there was no photographer mark/name.

[forthefamily]

The hats with the ribbons look like "boaters" or "skimmers" that they used to wear for sailing and boating (punting). First thing I thought of was water taxi drivers like in Venice...gondala boatmen:) Or ferrymen.....

Are you sure that your GGF wasn't in amateur theatre. This bunch look like a cast for Gilbert and Sullivan but I can't remember which musical/play. It's just a visual  association that is sticking in the back of my mind...argh.

Those sweaters look fairly new.

I really don't know?

[Gillyg]

I was thinking the same as Forthefamily - about a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta - Pirates of Penzance being a possibility?

[Gillg]

Hi Andrew

Just flitting over from your other posting on the Cambs board, mainly because I couldn't resist appearing next to someone with almost the same name as me.  (Gillyg-Gillg  )

On a rather flippant note, just what is that grim-looking sailor doing to the railwayman in front of him on the RH side of the photo?  He looks as though he's about to strangle him!

It looks as though we are all having similar ideas about the origins and occupants of the photo, but maybe the Little Downham FHS will be able to shed some light on the truth.  Have you also tried the Little Downham Past & Present website http://www.ltdownham.org.uk/ ?  Then there are the Local Studies sections of the libraries in Cambridge, Huntingdon and Ely, or local Record Offices (the latter may charge you for research).  Local newspapers like to feature this kind of interesting photo from time to time, too.  With such a large group photo. someone else's family may well be harbouring a copy.

Looks like it's going to be a long, but interesting trail for you.  Good luck 

Gillg

[patrish]

Personally I dont think the picture is "theatrical"