1949 KGV class photo

Thu, 01/01/2015 - 12:20

Thanks to Robin Bottomley-Smith (daughter of David and Corrine Bottomley) for this photo. She writes:

Thought you might like to put this old photo on your Gwulo website.  It is a photo of my parents’ KGV class, apparently taken in November 1949.   My father David Bottomley is sitting on the steps in the back row, centre left – the one with the big white collar without a tie!  My mother, Corrine Bottomley (nee Ellery),  is sitting on the steps towards the front – just behind and just to the right of the girl who is sitting front centre of the photo.   My father is the same David Bottomley who appears in the 1938 Peak School photo with his sister Marjorie Bray (nee Bottomley).   However we are not related to the Charles David Bottomley who appears elsewhere on this website.

Thanks to Joan Franklin Izard and Corrine Bottomley for putting names to all the faces:

  • a - Sheila Bolton (in front)
  • b - Mr Cockburn (Teacher)
  • c - Rosemary Swabey
  • d - Natalie Rackovsky
  • e - Corrine Bottomley (nee Ellery)
  • f - Joan Hearther
  • g - Bernadette O'Donovan (standing)
  • h - Pauline Gannaway
  • i - Susan Strellett
  • j - Shauna Anderson
  • k - Luba Skvorzov
  • l - Christine Wen
  • m - Alla Stepanoff
  • n - Anna Graham-Cummings
  • o - Irene Smirnoff
  • p - Sandy Goodwin
  • q - Jimmy Adams
  • r - John Mortelmans
  • s - Roberta McMillan
  • t - Nathalie Sokoloff
  • u - Minka Wikamp
  • v - David Bottomley
  • w - Norma Stevens
  • x - Peter Sandbach
  • y - Keith Morrison
  • z - Igor Chudin
  • 1 - Ken Waller
  • 2 - little Tommy Taus
  • 3 - Forbes Eastman

Regards, David

Date picture taken
1 Nov 1949

Comments

I really enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces, and I'm sure you will get many replies - only sorry I can't put names to them all.

The faces I can put names to: Left front, Rosemary Swabey. Extreme right in a white shirt Bernadette O'Donovan. Other names are Susan Strellett, Shauna Anderson, Luba Skvorzoff, Norma Stevens, Irene Smirnoff, Sheila Bolton, Sandy Goodwin, Sandbach. 

 

Not in any particular order: P: Sandy Goodwin; S: Roberta McMillan; W: Norma Stevens; X: Sandbach; 1: might be Michael Koodiarov; 3: might be Viacheslav Atroshenko; O: Irene Smirnoff; K: Luba Skvorzov; J: Shauna Anderson; A: Sheila Bolton; I: Susan Strellett; Teacher (B) Mr Coxhead

In writing this I've lost the photo, so hope I've got it all correct !!

Kind regards, Joan

 

Robin has been in touch again, and forwarded a message from her mother, Corrine Bottomley, giving the full list of names. Thanks to you both for your help.

Joan, I've used Corrine's list to add in the extra names. It had a different name for the teacher which I've used, but let me know if you think it needs to change again.

I'm struck by the number of Russian-sounding names in the group. We read about a significant Russian community in Hong Kong around that time, and here they are.

Regards, David

Just an aside - I didn't go there until 1954, but I remember a Rosemary Swabey, who went on to marry one of my father's brother officers, a Capt. Tom Hancock RAOC.

Keep up the good work

Eric Lloyd