History of a Family in 6 objects. Part 2

The BBC recently ran a radio series with the help of the British Museum on 100 objects that shaped or contributed to the history of the world. These ranged from statues to coins and from toys to modern technology. I have tried to achieve the same sense of significance but in relation to our family for a few objects lying around the house currently or remembered from growing up.

Part 2- Nautical Chart

The true environment for a Nautical Chart would be rolled up cocooned in others on a table in the wheelhouse of a seagoing vessel. Whilst treasured and meticulously preserved each chart would be able to convey its own story through signs of wear and tear, wind whipped edges, pencilled scribblings by way of observed amendments, the faded stains of a well earned fortified cup of tea, salt spray, sweat and tears and perhaps a few traces of fish entrails. It was a hard decision to make but the May 1974 Gnonomic issue for England-East Coast at a scale of 1:50000 is now framed up and takes pride of place in our dining room.Whilst produced under the Superintendence of Rear Admiral G P D Hall, Hydrographer of the Navy, the chart belonged to George Brown, my father in law. He knew the area of coverage extremely well as it figured significantly through his lifetime. The northern landfall extremity of the chart shows just above the town of Withernsea and with the bottom right hand corner the dunes and marshes of the Lincolnshire coast below Grimsby. Farthest west is an inset panel of how to navigate up the Humber to Goole and below that a further extract of the entrance to the River Trent. The course of the river meanders mightily as befits its role of draining one fifth of the landmass of England. To the east, the North Sea with navigation guidance as far as the former mooring position of the Humber Lightship. George was born in the port city of Kingston upon Hull in 1929. In his teens he was working on the river on low slung commercial barges which plied between the thriving Hull docks and the inland riverside towns. These vessels were the HGV's of the time carrying coal, fuel oil, grain and bulk goods in large and regular shipments. George was on the river during the early part of the second world war and will have witnessed and indeed been exposed to the incessant airborne bombing raids on the docks and wider urban area in the peak blitz years of 1941 to 1943. His maritime experience, even though he was still under the age for conscription to the military was important and he was soon to be working much more hazardous waters on the lifeline provided to the country by the Arctic convoys. After the war George took again to the sea but in a much warmer climate and was stationed in Malta in RAF Air Sea Rescue aboard what will have been former motor torpedo boats and also as flight crew on the Sunderland Flying Boats. George was a grafter and provider for his family working, in civilian life in the large industrial plants of Hull and also on the Blackburn Aircraft production line at Brough some 7 miles west of the city. The 1974 navigation chart was acquired by George to go with his ownership of a sea-cobble fishing boat maintained and shore-berthed at Tunstall on the Holderness Coast. The North Sea was still a very productive fishing ground at that time and the vessel provided access well offshore to reach the stocks of fat fleshy Cod, in particular, now very sadly depleted and emaciated by comparison. Beach angling was also a favourite pursuit of George and the chart illustrates the sheer size and scale of the annual competitions which would attract participants from all over the country, europe and the world who would draw pegs at regular spots along the full length of the Holderness Coast from Spurn Head to Bridlington. The chart is a technical document essential to an understanding and safe negotiation of a major and very busy watercourse but for George it was also the key to a very active and enjoyable lifelong association with things maritime.

History of a Family in 6 objects. Part 1

The BBC recently ran a radio series with the help of the British Museum on 100 objects that shaped or contributed to the history of the world. These ranged from statues to coins and from toys to modern technology. I have tried to achieve the same sense of significance but in relation to my family for a few objects lying around the house currently or remembered from growing up.

Part 1; Africa

I never really knew and have great difficulty actually remembering my Grandfather on my father's side of the family. He died when I was about 4 or 5 years old. My only recollection is of a very strong smell of cigarettes in his presence and how he would produce from his cardigan a packet of sweet cigarettes for us when it was time to leave and go home. Other fragments of information came from my late father and a few bits of furniture or inherited objects that came with Gran when she moved in for the last 10 or so years of her long and generally healthy life. My grandfather worked for the Bank of British West Africa which helped to introduce modern banking to that part of the African continent. He travelled widely and had associations with business and trade in Liberia and I think Sierra Leone. Two objects that fascinated me as a small child epitomised the myths surrounding my grandfather.

The first is actually a pair of crocodiles. I am not sure if I contributed to loss of the lower jaw of one of the figures but I was not to know that carved ivory was quite brittle when roughly handled in play. They are about 6 inches long, perfectly straight, and with a girth of about the middle finger. The jaws have cerrated teeth and a gaping hole of a mouth that served well as a rest for a pencil or rolled up balls of plasticine but for which it was never intended. The reptiles had a flat belly underside and could sit flat and level on display. The tail tapered to a sharp point and the whole body had a raised series of scales. I would usually head for the crocodiles first in visiting the rather dark and grim inter war semi detached house where my grandparents lived.

The second object of fascination is a carved upright figure, standing about eight inches tall. It was skillfully carved by a native African out of a single piece of light, almost balsa or cork wood. This will have been sourced from what remained of a once extensive equitorial forest but decimated under a two pronged attack to clear land for farming and to provide fuel for a village hut or smallholding farmstead. The figure is very much a caricature, comic but authoritative, of a Colonial Officer, perhaps a Civil Servant or even a Missionary or Teacher. I liked to think, when young, that it was loosely based on my grandfather. The uniform includes a pith helmet in white pigment but now very much faded to a pale washy hue. The hat is removeable and has done well to accompany the figure through many Spring Cleans and a few house removals.  His facial features are sharp with a regular but dominating nose starting well up on the forehead. The eyes are almond shaped, almost feminine in apearance. Thick fleshy lips sit above a proud chin. There remains some trace of a sunburnt skin tone but with bleaching and blotching from catching the sunlight after close to a century of exhibition and play. Attired in a khaki safari suit the figure is quite dapper. The skill of the carver has produced faint folds of linen and the suit is well tailored but cool for the sweltering climate. Incongruously the man is wearing boots with quite a Cuban heel and retaining a bright burnt-umber shade to depict leather. The pose is sitting or rather perching on a bench and at a desk to symbolise a position of relative powerand control in the Colony. The desk is typical for a Board School furnishing. Stout vertical supports, low bracing bar doubling up as a footrest, hinged heavy lid, inset ink well and a groove for a writing implement. The front face of the desk has symbols of a circle and triangle, almost masonic but not thought to be of any significance or menace.

The figure is a personalised souvenir of Empire because it was individually carved with patience and artistic understanding. It may well have been one, however, of thousands of similar brought to the river bank or quayside, city square or hotel steps, railway platform or other embarcation point to be thrust into the view or hands of departing Civil Servants, Financiers, Businessmen, Private Tourists and my Grandfather.