This photo is from 1908.
The lady seated is Ellen Jackson (nee Halsall, 1857) my great grandmother & widow of Nathan, of whose sad demise I have previously posted. Sitting next to her is daughter Annie, 13; standing are son Charles, 19 and my grandmother Clara, 25. Another daughter, Ellen, was absent. She was married and may have left the area.
Presumably their mourning togs would have been hired for the occasion? I can't imagine a shoemaker would have had enough spare cash to maintain a complete set.
Clara died 1963 when I was about nine years old; Annie I remember well - she used to live in some flats on Haig Avenue near the football ground, then she moved near us in Liverpool until her death in 1980. Only the vaguest memory of Charles.
Bez
Mourning followed a set pattern, especially for a widow and black would be worn for (I think) the first 12 months, then you could progress to half-mourning and wear purple. It probably wasn't followed as rigorously by 1908, but in earlier times it certainly was.
ray green
in the late seventies I worked with a woman who was widowed. She wore all black even changing in to black slippers at work. She also had a black shopping bag. On the first anniversary of her husband's death she turned up in pre-mourning outfit.
Dotty
Mmmm...
I think this thrread only shows just how far things have changed! Not always for the better methinks...
