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Hi
There is no doubt that you have got the right family. On one of the photos that Gertrude sent to my father in 1979 she has written “Aunt Meg. Uncle George & my Mummy.” The picture shows three children of roughly similar age in Victorian/Edwardian dress. Since the picture was sent to my father, the ‘my Mummy’ presumably refers to Gertrude herself, though I am not sure if this works out age-wise.
My father, John, was particularly fond of “Auntie Meg” (Margaret) as, when very young, he was brought up in her family. She lived with her husband and daughter in Brunswick Street, Edinburgh.  Meg’s daughter was then in her teens and, as well as taking John to the nearby (silent) movies, she introduced him to the 1920s “Jazz Age” in the form of a wind-up gramophone and records by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra – a love which went with him through his life. When he reached school age he went back to stay with his father and others in Gilmore Place. I am looking forward to sending photographs – I am spending quite a bit of time at the scanner – but I am not sure how to go about it.
HC

Hello Red Mystic

I first met Gertrude somewhere around 1960 when I was about 12. Before then I was unaware of her existence as there had been no contact with our family for a very long time. After that we all kept in touch regularly – Gertie and Harry would come and stay sometimes and we would visit them in Blackpool sometimes. Harry was also an actor – I remember him sitting with a typewriter in the backroom of their house in Blackpool working on one of his plays. They both had very sharp minds, probably as a result of working in ‘rep’ for so long. When younger they would travel round the country by rail, staying in boarding houses. They would spend their evenings performing one play, their afternoons rehearsing the next play and their mornings learning the lines of a third play – quite a challenge.
Last year my father (Gertrude’s son) died (born 23 Sept 1917 in Gloucester). She had left Edinburgh when he was still very young, but as a boy he was sometimes sent off to Blackpool for his holidays. On one occasion (in the 1920s) he was actually given a part in one of the plays that was being performed.  I think the part was ‘Little Willie’ in a play called ‘East Lynne.’ Although he was just a boy he was old enough to appreciate being clasped to the breast of the beautiful leading lady every night as she declaimed the famous line, “Gone, gone, and never called me mother!”
I will have to do a bit of digging around amongst old photos and see what I can find.

H.C.