Radcliffe WWI Photo Gallery
Constance Howard left Radcliffe during the war to work in a Manchester hospital for wounded soldiers. Click here to discover more about her work as a nurse and the tragic death of her brother.
Please help bring stories like Constance Howard’s to life by sending us copies of your photos. We are creating a gallery of people from Radcliffe on Trent to build a social history record of lives at home and abroad during the war years.
Our Radcliffe servicemen gallery already has a hundred photos. Many men had their photos taken in uniform before setting off for the Front; there are several in our collection. Military photos were also taken at training camps in the U.K. Soldiers were generally not allowed to take cameras into war zones and could be court martialled if they did. But souvenir portraits of individuals, pairs and small groups were commonly taken by local photographers behind the lines, produced as postcards and then sent home. Families treasured such photos, often handing them down through the generations. Millions of photos of WWI servicemen have survived.
Photographic records of women’s lives in the war years are more uneven; where available images are often stylised and formal. Photos usually show them in family groups; they are less frequently shown in their work roles. Typical photos include women with brothers, husbands or sons in uniform, studio portraits and wedding pictures. We have far fewer photos of women than men in our collection.
Mabel Howard, sister of Constance, with husband Percy Rook and children Kenneth, Thomas and Constance
Our aim is to display as many photos as possible of those who lived in the Radcliffe area during the war. Photos often come to us via relatives: Constance Howard’s picture was sent from the U.S.A. We need your help to find all the pictures that may be in your loft, at the back of the cupboard, in old albums or housed with members of your family. We understand that you won’t want to send us originals and we may be able to help with copying. You can get in touch with us here.