Percy Pritchard's album

Servicemen wounded or suffering from frostbite at Gallipolli and other warzones in the eastern Mediterranean, recovering in one of several large hospitals set up in Malta during WW1. Added to the Vintage Photos Theme Park events and celebrations weekly theme.

This is a cropped version of a very small print - this section is probably about 2cm square! As far as I have worked out, Percy started in the 1st Hereford's. He suffered from frostbite in the Dardanelles campaign. He was in hospital on Malta at the end of 1915. He then seems to have served in the Camel Corps in Egypt and ended the war in the Royal Flying Corps.

The location and date are written on the back of the photo. Percy Pritchard was at the back, in front of the shop's doorway. The caption is mine.

This delightful family group was taken in the 1930s. After some of the other modes of transport Percy has been seen with previously, it is good to see him settle down as a family man!

The negative must have had some damage as the print had black and white areas on the left of this shot.I have rebuilt the left side of the dog's tripod and patched up the lower parts of the dog. I don't know when this was taken, but judging by Percy's appearance I guess it is just before WW2. He was my mother's uncle. I don't know whether he took this with a time lapse camera or if one of the other snap-happy Pritchards took it.

Suggestions for the car's make & model would be welcome! The head lights on top of the mudguards seem distinctive, but I have not yet spotted that feature on any cars of the period.

I wonder if the kink in the starboard wing was damage or shows where the structure was jointed for folding for transport.

When the Second World War came, Percy's glider skills saw him commissioned in the Royal Air Force and posted to train assault glider pilots.

Marjory's Douglas and Percy's Harley Davidson seen together. There was room for the photographer on the pillion of the Harley, I guess!

Muriel is my late mother. The car is a 19 litre Mercedes Maybach tourer, which Percy Pritchard owned in earlier years and which formed part of his funeral cortege. The noisy aero-engined car needed special permission from the Hereford Cathedral authorities before it could enter the cathedral precincts.

Looking closely at this photo and some more of the same combination, I think that it has a small petrol engine. The wicker seat was designed to carry an elderly or invalid relative and an engine would certainly have helped with that task.

Uploaded for the Vintage Photo Theme Park - 'boots' theme. This was taken while he was a dispatch rider at the Allied Headquarters near Cairo, during WW1.