108th Wedding Anniversary

Once again, something very interesting has come into my hands; this time it was safely delivered to me  via Royal Mail and Canada Post from AR (only just though, as the envelope was poking half-way out of  the mail slot and it began to pour with rain about 15 minutes after I came home and rescued it).  The package had a dozen photographs in it - all originals, some without copies made of them - and the one that is most exciting, is the wedding picture of Lionel Percy Waller and Lily Maud Meadows.  Sometime in the last couple of decades, someone (we do not know who), had a professional restore the 1904 photograph to the best of his/her ability, and the result is not too bad.  I am going to see about someone here taking another crack at it in the new year, because the technology will have improved and we may get an even better quality picture from it.  I have put a copy of the original below the others, so that you can see what a state it is in.  It looks as though is has deteriorated further at the edges.

 If I paid more attention to dates, I would have done more than just notice that the wedding photograph was taken in winter, and found out that Lionel and Lily were married on December 24th, 1904, and could have made this an anniversary blog posting on Christmas Eve.

Full wedding party? Or just the Meadows side?

I wonder why the picture was taken on this bit of uneven-looking ground, rather than on the church steps, or inside a building.  Perhaps it was the fashion, or perhaps this was a place of some significance to the couple, or to one of the families.

Are the two people behind Lily Maud someone's, parents?  The fellow in the uniform is Lionel's best man.  AR thinks the lady sitting in black (above picture) and the man behind her may be parents of Lily.  If so, we have here the only known images of my great-great grandparents.  The lady in black does look more like Lily.  It is a shame that the original photograph distorts Lily's face, because in the reproduction photo, she looks all wonky, and it's impossible to tell what her wedding dress looked like.

Close up of Lionel Waller (in his Royal Horse Artillery uniform) and Lily Meadows

The current state of the original copy of wedding photograph of Lionel Percy Waller & Lily Maud Meadows

This poor old battered photograph survived a couple of world wars and much travelling around with those to whom it belonged over the years, and then its most recent trip across the Atlantic by post.  It is a miracle that it did survive at all to land in the hands of a great-granddaughter in the digital age.  There must be a few hundred people alive today who are connected with the people in this picture.  I hope others are led here eventually, to see this picture of their ancient relations as well.