Uniform Query

MollyMay

MollyMay

Knows where to find the answers!
I thought I had posted this picture before (but cannot find it) and asked for help in identifying the uniform but nothing definite was established.
Now this morning looking for info on the Bedford Regiment for @Sis I found a picture on the regiment site and I immmediately recognised the jacket as the same as on my unnamed photo. Even the hair style is similar
Do you think I am correct?
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Thanks Ann, when it was discussed previously there was some debate as to whether my man was in military uniform, even though it was noticed he is wearing spurs.
Why does it have to be a BH tomorrow:mad:, so I will have to hang fire on emailing the National Army Museum (it is a photo on their website) to see if they can give me an approximate date for the uniform.
I might be on track to solve a mystery:)
 
An update:- I did mail the National Army Museum back in May and got a reply early in June asking for more info - then nothing.
Today my OH and I took a ride up to Chelsea and to the museum.
Their archive people were just so helpful, and in minutes were able to give me a date of between 1886 and 1894 for their photo. Not only that but got out the photo album where the picture came from, and I was able to look through just in case there was any further info in it (sadly not - but it was wonderful to see).
The archive is wholy dependant on 'gifts', so if anyone has army records from their family and have nowhere, or no-one, to pass them onto, remember the NAM.
They tell me they are delighted when someone turns up with a box or carrier bag, od donated items. The album I looked at was one such donation:)
As for the, how shall I put it? distinctive hairstyle, there were plenty of others in this album sporting the same style, so it must have been the height of fashion then.

I have always assumed this is a picture from my paternal granddad's family, but my husband came up with the suggestion that perhaps it is my nemises John West, my nan's father. He who only appears on 2 census and on his m/c and his children's b/c. Food for thought, and some serious rootling around to be done:)
 
Some help please.

Can you give me some thoughts on the age of the chap in my photo? I know what I would like it to be, but need some independent ideas.
 
Surely these are the same man? About 18-21 in your photo, mid-20's in the other (with a corporal's stripe & medals)?

Jane
 
Thank you all for your thoughts, it is just so difficult to try and put an age to a face. Like Ann I thought 30-40 (which fits with whom I think it could be), but young men back then did looker older in photographs (and life I guess).
As for it being the same man - I have no idea. Those in the NAM picture are all corporals (from writing under the original photograph) meaning they had been in the service for some while perhaps?
I really am no further forward in putting a name to my man and he had to be someone close to my nan/grandad for them to have had a photo - which was once in frame (you can see where the card has been cut to fit), so he was important to one or both of them and no left to ask:(
 
Can you find anyone in delvings who may have been 'close' to your Grandies who may fit that photo? with the years suggested?
Hard isn't it when you think how many g'persons your Grandies would have had.
 
Browsing through Bridgeford's Barber Instructor & Toilet Manual (as you do!) I came across an image which appears to show exactly the same hair style as your man in the photo. This book is American and was published in 1904 (not 1900 as it says on the web page). The hairstyle is so distinctive that I suspect it was only in fashion for a relatively short time and so this may help in dating your photo. I've found a clearer version of the original image on this site (see the image called 'front of No.14').

http://www.
kristinholt.com/archives/7498

For what it's worth I think your man is relatively young but it is difficult to say. It's worth noting that he hasn't got a stripe and though they weren't handed out willy-nilly, it slightly militates against him being older. I note that his trousers have 2 heavy stripes whereas the lads in the corporals' photograph are quite different.

Having said all that, you could be looking for a 20-24 year old born around 1880.
 
Wendy, Grandad was born in 1871 and Nan in 1886, grandad died 11 years before I was born and nan when I was just 10. I know so little about them.
After nan died there was a family rift, so I am not even in contact with the cousins of my generation (most were much older, and I only have contact with 3 of them). Dad did not speak much of his family, he was not a fan of his father, who was a tunneller on the underground railways and drank heavily. Nan had 12 live births and many other pregnancies which ended early, so his home life was not brilliant but he loved his mum deeply. Both were one of 12 children, so that is why the age of the man in my picture is critical to the search.
 
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