This is the one and only photograph of my g/g-grandmother, Elizabeth RICHARDSON, who had been born in Barony Parish, Glasgow in 1838.
Elizabeth was the daughter of David RICHARDSON, a shipwright by profession, and Victoria VERUE (also referred to at times in certain records by the surnames VALUE and VEVIESER).
The photograph, approximately six inches tall, has been coloured by hand and is mounted on a stiff cloth backing.
According to information from my aunt who gave me the image some years ago, originally it had been much larger and was mounted in a dark wooden oval frame. She recalled it being a head and shoulders portrait which had hung on the wall of my grandmothers home in Hughson Street, Toxteth.
Unfortunately, during WW2, the terraced house next door took a direct hit from a German bomb during an air raid. Luckily our family remained safe, tucked away in the brick and concrete air raid shelter which had been built in the rear yard of their house. But their home itself did not escape unscathed. Its windows were blown out and the photograph and its frame were blown off the wall by the blast. Other possessions of my grandparents were either damaged or looted from their home after they had been forced to move out while the house was being repaired.
Years afterwards, my aunt cut away the damaged parts of the image-- trimming the photo down to its current size with a pair of dressmakers pinking shears-- leaving it decorated with a serrated edge.
Of course, I would have loved to have seen the full portrait of my great-grandmother in all its glory, but considering what had happened to it following the air raid, I consider myself extremely lucky that we have any of it left at all.
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