The mysterious story of Robert Stafford 

The missing photograph

The aunt had brought over from America a photograph of Rob in his army uniform, taken in the 1840s. This she left with the family.

Eventually it came into Old Jim's possession and he said he kept it on the mantelpiece for many years. It had been taken in the earliest days of photography and it gradually faded away until all that remained of Rob was the top of his head!

But written on the back of this photograph were details of the place where he was born and other members of his family. Old Jim said he had put the photograph away in a drawer after it faded out.

You can imagine how desperately I wanted to inspect it. When I came to see him every fortnight after that, I asked if he had found it, but he had always forgotten. I continued asking for about two months but he always forgot. By this time he was almost ninety-eight and becoming very feeble and I felt guilty about harrassing him.

When he died a few months later I had this old photograph very much in mind but, due to a mix up with my mother, she cleared out his cottage several hours before I arrived there. Three bags of rubbish had been put beside the bin and collected by the refuse men before I got there.

Some papers still remained in the drawers in his bedroom, but no photographs and no papers concerning his family. We can only wonder whether the photograph had been thrown out. It would have seemed like a piece of old card with some scribbling on it.

There the story ends. Having cleared it from his mind, as it were, Old Jim never mentioned it again. He died a few months later.

< return to the front