Favourite Photo

​This week’s #52Ancestors theme is Favourite Photo and I have picked the photo of my paternal Grandad and his two brothers.  Unfortunately it is quite faded.  Alfred Sidney Baldwin (centre) my Grandad was born in 1916 and his older brother Bill or William James was born in 1914 (left) and his younger brother Len or Herbert Leonard was born in 1920.  I really don’t know much about my two great uncles at all but my grandad could be quite brusque, a spade was a spade and he was a no nonsense man.
 
This photo shows Bill and Alf in uniform, I believe Len didn’t join the services for WW2 but his jacket looks similar to those of the other two boys so I’m not so sure.  But I think it may be something to do with the lack of stripes on the shoulders.

Grandad was in the Royal Sussex Regiment and fought through North Africa up into Europe via Italy; Monte Casino.  I would like to get hold of Grandad’s Service Record as I would like to know more.  He really didn’t talk much about his involvement in the war, I remember being quite surprised at his funeral at the history we were told. Typically when he was alive I wasn’t really that interested and didn’t really listen if he ever did talk about his War. 
 
When I look at this photo I always think what handsome boys they were and how I would have liked to have known them then when they were young.  We only ever know grandparents when they are old, or at least older and as children we never think about our relatives as being young and the lives they lived before we came along.    

Image (l to r) Bill, Alf and Len Baldwin presumably taken early in WW2