Roger's Story

“You know,” says Roger, “my mother so nearly threw that picture away. It was very creased. And when Dad wrote the date on the back, the pen pierced the photograph and damaged the part showing his arm and leg, so it was in a sorry state!”

But if anyone had an excuse for a little wear and tear, James Mann did. Taken in Egypt in 1938, then carried in his pocket, this photograph and one other quite literally 'saw action' as they travelled with their owner through the Second World War. Beginning his military service as a driver and ending as a gunnery sergeant, James Mann served in North Africa with the Royal Artillery and as far afield as Iceland. “He was at Dunkirk in 1940”, Roger says, “and I wonder if these photographs were evacuated with him! They are important to us as we have no other record of his life at that time.

“I don’t think they were ever displayed. I knew nothing of them until my mother died in 1998 (my father died in 1992). We found them in a drawer when clearing out my mother’s house. He did carry them with him, but after the war talked little of his time in the army or his war experiences; and only when he had had a few whiskeys!”

Discovering that photograph restoration is possible, and posting the prints to Restoring Glory, both pictures have now been repaired and enlarged (the tiny original above, just 8 by 5 cm, is now a glorious 23 by 15 cm). “I can tell you, my older brother who is in his eighties had a tear in his eye when I showed the restored picture to him. He had never seen the original before. My sister is certain that somewhere there is a photograph of Dad taken when he was in Iceland – with a Huskie dog named Mick! If we find it, we will certainly be bringing that for repair, too.”

If you have a treasured old photograph, contact Restoring Glory today to start out on your own amazing journey.