• Photographic protocol :WHERE IS MUM ?. 

Family portraits of Mum and the children, sent to father who was away fighting in the forces are commonplace.

A family group studio portrait without Mother was unthinkable.

One shouldn't always think the worst • • •  • • • but in this case we should .  • Today there would be hundreds of possibilities why a family should be without a mother. Divorce,separation & suicide  are all possible--- but improbable in those days. Each year  • Hundreds of women died in childbirth, or died of common infections and ailments which would be cured today. A few were away in asylums or sanitoriums but sadly an absent Mother will usually mean she is dead.

The girl in the centre photograph holds a photo of a woman and is inscribed on the back "From your Brother and Niece

The Influenza epidemic of 1919 caused the death of 250,000 mostly young British adults.