Figure 1.--The small boy sitting on the running board is the son of the parents in the car - The Rev. Edgar and Mrs Vigar. Their son Cecil was born in 1906. He was cousin and great playmate of my friend. The the picture dates from about 1916. Taken in Cornwall. The car is a Darracq. The Rev was a colourful character, as was his wife.

A reader tells us, "The small boy sitting on the running board is the son of the parents in the car - The Rev. Edgar and Mrs Vigar. Their son Cecil was born in 1906. He was cousin and great playmate of my friend Hammish. The the picture dates from about 1916. Taken in Cornwall. The car is a Darracq. The Rev was a colourful character, as was his wife. Not long after the photo was taken he had a liasion with the lady organist. My friend who often stayed with them tells me that the 1st wife's mission in life was to get him to smoke. She even light-up in church one day. I think the car dates from about 1906, was was not new. Cornwall is a county with many narrow roads and steep hills. The only way Uncle Edgar could drive up the hills was backwards, as revearse was the lowest gear. A nice bit of eccentric England. Hamish is a very colourful character whom I have known for the past 40-odd years. Although 10 years younger than me is likes to think he is living in 1930's England. A sort of Bertie Wooster character. He refers to his friends as 'chums' and anyone who annoys him as a 'bounder'. He is the son of a sea captain, and his grandfatrher was also Royal Navy. He was a college lecturer in History of Art. Brought up in Cornwall he moved back there on retirement. He likes to walk Dartmoor in tweeds, flat cap and knobbly walking stick."

Hamish added to the discussion, "'Young' Cecil who is sitting on the running board and was one of my favourite relations was born in 1904. I reckoned him as being about 10 at the time of the photo and I seem to recall that he corroborated this surmise. The only other thing I remember is that he told me that in order to get up some of the hills around Penshurst you had to go in reverse, that being the lowest gear. Uncle Edgar Vigers was the curate at Penshurst and Aunt Marjorie was my great aunt. I last saw her in 1964 just before she died at Madingley. From when I was eight until her death her main aim was to try to get me to smoke. On occasion she accidentally lit up in church. Her two daughters lived until about 5 years ago when the older one burnt the house down over their heads, perhaps from smoking in bed. The older perished in the fire, the younger a year later. The older had been in a decline for the last 80 years of her life, the younger had a Nazi dagger given to her by the officer she drove during the War. She also had a motor scooter given to her by Tunku Abdul Rahman of Malaysia who had been tutored by Uncle Edgar at Cambridge." Our reader writes, "So there was obviously a considerable age gap. My mother was born in 1908. Hamish must be 4 or 5 years my junior.

Created: 6:21 PM 12/10/2009
Last updated: 8:39 AM 12/11/2009