I received a wonderful photo from my aunt a few days ago when she came to visit. Turns out she had it hidden away all this time. The bride and groom pictured are my maternal grandparents — John Lawrence Mitton and Joan Bradford. They married at St Mary’s Church, Long Ditton in Surrey on the 27thDecember 1945.
I already had a photo of just the two of them at their wedding, but I’m pleased to finally get hold of a group photo of the event as it shows a lot more of my ancestors and relatives.
I haven’t yet identified everyone in the photo, but I’m pretty sure there are a few friends of the family in the photo who aren’t actually relatives.
From left to right, I have identified:
- unknown
- Frank Vickery Bradford
(my great-grandfather — Joan Bradford’s father) - Hedley Joseph “Joe” Bradford
(my great-uncle — Joan Bradford’s brother) - unknown
- unknown
- Jean Bradford
(my great-aunt — Joan Bradford’s sister, and Joe’s twin) - John Lawrence Mitton
(my grandfather) - Joan Bradford
(my grandmother) - Eve Whitehead
(a friend of Joan Bradford’s, her bridesmaid) - Jean Bradford
(my great-grandmother — Joan Bradford’s mother, previously Jean Gray) - Leslie Collingwood Mitton
(my great-uncle — John Lawrence Mitton’s brother) - Annie “Nancy” Mitton
(my great-aunt by marriage — Leslie Collingwood Mitton’s wife, previously Annie Forbes) - Peter Vickery Bradford
(my great-uncle — Joan Bradford’s brother) - unknown
- William Hedley Gray
(my great-great-grandfather — Joan Bradford’s grandfather, Jean Gray’s father) - unknown
This is the first photo of my maternal great-grandparents — Frank and Jean — that I have obtained. It was also the first time my mother had seen a picture of her grandfather as Frank died before she was born.