Cleethorpes postcard with Friese-Greene family connection (3).
We are indebted to Peter Domankiewicz, who has a Friese-Greene family blog, for the wonderful family history he has written specially for us. You will be surprised to hear the story behind this set of four original real photo postcards. Over to you Peter:
THE FRIESE-GREENE CLEETHORPES POSTCARDS These four postcards are both a charming window onto the Edwardian seaside and a poignant snapshot of a difficult time in the lives of the sons of William Friese-Greene (1855-1921), the moving picture pioneer and obsessive inventor. The three eldest – in descending order – Claude, Kenneth and Graham, signed up to fight in the Great War, the latter two when underage. Fortunately, they all came back alive, but by then William and Edith, their father and mother, were financially ruined and had separated. Their father died of heart failure whilst attending a meeting of film distributors, having just given an appeal for unity, on 6 th May 1921, at the age of 65. Ethel, twenty years his junior, followed close behind, taken by cancer on the 20 th July. The two youngest – Vincent and Maurice, 10 and 14 years old – were still in school. A friend in the film industry, Will Day, organised an appeal to support them but that didn’t go very far. These are not conventional postcards, but the kind you could have made from personal photographs – and that’s what most of them are. The first two chronologically, from August and September 1921, show us what Kenneth is doing to make ends meet during the summer, depicting “the staff “The Boys” standing next to me”. He’s part of a team doing beach photography – he’s the one second from the right. These photographers would shoot groups of people on the beach and then display the images, which holidaymakers could order a copy of. You can see him in the act in the second picture, up a ladder, organising a group shot. The number on the photo, which would have been written on the negative, shows it was up for sale. The first picture shows two boards of photos – Monday’s and Saturday’s – and people checking them out. The woman behind the counter is dealing with orders and above their heads it states “PHOTOGRAPHED By Appointment 3/ (shillings) per ½ doz”. The postcards are to his older brother Claude, who was married to childhood sweetheart Chrissie and now had a toddler, Peter. Both father and son would have careers behind the camera – Claude in the cinema, Peter in television. They are living down in Hove where the family had spent the majority of their time after 1904. In the third card, from the end of September, showing a smiling and dapper Kenneth, he is looking forward to going down to visit them. The final card, from August 1922, shows a man in uniform and two women in driving gear, leaning against a vehicle with French signage and a Union Jack, perhaps indicating some kind of road race, with the pier as backdrop. This time, the card is from Vincent – ten years’ junior to Kenneth – writing to Claude and Chrissie, who have now moved up to London. He’s recounting going up in an aeroplane, which would have particular significance for Claude, who was with the Royal Flying Corps in the war and had since been earning money doing aerial photography and filming. Presumably, Vincent is spending some time with his older brother during the summer months. Kenneth would later settle in Sheffield, running a business designing and fitting out cinemas. Vincent would follow his oldest brother into the air force, dying in action in 1944. At this moment, they are just trying to find their way in the world and have some fun.
Peter Domankiewicz 21 st June 2020
