A rather random post this morning – one that was inspired as I started doing a bit of tidying around the place, a task now temporarily abandoned.
Take a look at this pic – I quite forget how I came by the original.
The photo was taken, I think, outside Jersey’s Opera House in Gloucester Street. A couple of things date it to within a year or so, notably the posters on the wall for the 1948 film ‘Broken Journey’. The Opera House was, at this period in its history, primarily a cinema.
What of those pictured? On the left is Cyril Gill who, before he came to Jersey, competed for Great Britain at athletics and was the lead-off member of the sprint relay team that won a bronze medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics (possibly the last time a GB team got the baton round 🙂 ).
He is shaking the hand of Harry Askew who was born in Barrow-in-Furness and came to Jersey as Head of Victoria College for a couple of years at the end of the 40s before continuing his teaching career in the north-east of England. Harry was also a top athlete and came 9th in the 1948 London Olympics at long jump. To this day he holds the Jersey long jump record of 7.29m.
Together Cyril and Harry formed the Jersey Athletics Club after the War.
The lady is (I think) Harry’s wife Beth.
The suave gentleman on the right? Almost certainly David Niven, no stranger to the Island. Niven saw active service during WW2 and acted in a film set in 1940 in the occupied Channel Islands – Appointment with Venus (Island Rescue in the US).
One almost-discarded photo, so many stories it hatches.
Back On The Rock 
Great picture, and great post! I love a trip down memory lane. And would you believe it, but Barrow in Furness is where I come from! Small world. But the big question is, how did this photo come to be in your possession?
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Thanks Ali – yes I recollect you saying you’re from Barrow. I’m told Askew was good at school but another lad his age was better and had lots of school records, yet it was Askew who went to the Olympics. I must have been given the pic when I was helping with the ‘History of Jersey Athletics’ a few years ago.
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That’s interesting! Wonder what happened there, then? In any case, its a lovely picture to have, I’m glad you didn’t throw it away!
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It’s not always the case that star youngsters become star adults. A zillion factors are involved. It’s certainly a a talking point of a pic but I bet those four didn’t realise that someone would be blogging about it 65 years later 🙂
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No! I’m sure they didnt! 😀
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A great photo to find, for sure!
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Thanks Carrie – I’ve had it for a while but I rediscovered it and it has a few tales to tell all right.
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How intriguing…I wonder how you came to own it? That in itself is a story. I love black and white photos.
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Hi Jenny – doing some research, but quite where now I’ve no idea. Someone must have identified the individuals for me.
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A lovely unexpected find!
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A rediscovery really, and the realisation how many spin-offs there are from it.
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What a great photo. I love finding (or rediscovering) treasures like this 😉
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Hi Dianne – yes and one that could have slipped away again for ever. It’s not one that would hold popular attention but it is intriguing.
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Wow! Most people wouldn’t have a clue what they are looking at! I will look for that movie on You Tube. Thanks for sharing, Roy.
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Hello Naomi! Yes I wonder if it is still available and watchable? I never heard of it before despite having antennae alert for local history snippets.
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I’m impressed that I am not even six degrees of separation from someone who has a photo with David Niven in it. I read his books (The Moon’s a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses) when I was younger and they launched me on a whole period of reading biographies of stars and vicariously living out behind the scenes Hollywood thrills. I almost want to see if they’re available as ebooks, I so fondly remember being lost in Niven’s memories. You see how your old photos spark something in others?
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‘Ready when you are Mr de Mille!’ Yes I read those books years ago and they were quite brilliant. I wonder what brought him and the two athletes together on this occasion?
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Roy, great photo to have re-discovered. Thank goodness you didn’t throw it out in some mad clear out along the way.
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Thanks Jean. I wish I’d found it a little later though as my clear-out project has now becalmed 🙂
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Clear-out projects are bogey-men to me. I have the greatest intentions but never get further than box 1 and get so engrossed that it all ends there. ‘Becalmed’ is a lovely word for that scenario!
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A great re-discovery Roy, such a nostalgic photo.
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Thank you Andrea, I’m pleased I rescued it. It could tell many a tale.
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So cool! I took the handbag that started the whole Nola Fran Evie thing out for a spin on Saturday night…to our first same-sex wedding, actually!
I was telling Hugh that it was so funny when I bought that handbag, because I never went to that secondhand store in Milwaukee any other time. I even tried on all of these clothes, but nothing was working. Then I went over to the handbag section, and you know the rest of the story.
History. Fate. Love it.
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Yes of course Britt, great similarities there. Forgotten moments in history awoken by a chance find and someone writing about them. Like there are links to the past everywhere just beneath the ground we walk on every day, just waiting to be discovered. Those that have gone are within touching distance.
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I always look at photos from this era and think it was a simpler time. In many ways, I’m sure it was, but so many nuances I’m sure I’m not aware of because I didn’t live through it. Great pic!
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Hi Kristine! Yes I’m certain things were simpler but not necessarily better. I like my social history but find people have an idealised view of it and would soon beg to escape if transported back there 🙂
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What a great photograph. David Niven looks like he was having a marvelous time (I am writing that in his erudite English accent). 🙂
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Hi Kerry. Yes I’d like to know a bit more about the reason for that little gathering.
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Roy, such a keeper love to know what they were talking about. David Niven was a legend and I always enjoyed his films.
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Hello Kath – yes it certainly gives more questions than answers this pic. Loved Niven’s books and I know he was well regarded both as an actor and a gentleman, but I’ve rarely watched films at any stage of my life.
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I love ‘old’ photos like these. People were classy (classier) back then, don’t you think? I think I would have fit in nicely then. I don’t think it was necessarily ‘simpler,’ but more rules applied, which made the time a little easier? Definitely classier. :-)That is David Niven, for sure. A classy guy.
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Hi Pam, certainly this pic illustrates how the British ‘upper middle classes’ would inevitably have been turned out in the 40s/50s – smart suits without the trimmings of ostentation that would have shouted ‘upper class’. The ‘lower middle classes’ would be dressed similarly but more shabbily – maybe darns at the elbow, holes in shoes etc., but still aspiring to be above the ‘working classes’ with their work clothes and flat caps 🙂
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