Photos of me in 1977 and 1986, also Amiens trip, June 1986

Photo of me in 1977

 

 

This is my only photographic appearance in a newspaper in all my life to date.

Courtesy of The News (Portsmouth), 20 December 1977, the group photo was taken in connection with a "Mastermind" competition organised at Priory School in my first secondary school year, not long after I started there in September 1977.

However I didn't win ...

I'm the one in glasses wearing a light grey jumper and tie standing in the back row.

I started wearing glasses during my junior school years, because I was diagnosed with a "lazy eye", but stopped wearing them not long after this photo was taken.

 

When this was first published in The News, I didn't keep a copy, but subsequently located an original held in British Library's former Newspaper Library at Colindale.

 

Photo of me in 1986

 

 

Nowadays so many of us take selfies, but photographs of me are few and far between, before digital photography became widespread.

It was a rare find!

It's a portrait of me with auburn hair aged 20 on an old British Visitor's Passport issued 10 June 1986.

This was the first time I travelled abroad since a junior school trip to Normandy in July 1977.

I needed a passport in order to travel with a party of 1st year students from the BA Library and Information Studies course at Ealing College of Higher Education for a day trip to Amiens, France, on Friday 20 June that year.

We left early for the ferry crossing and many of us spent all day sightseeing in Amiens; only a few (including myself and Fiona Crudge) actually visited the university library. The trip was organised by Dr Stephen Roberts, a course lecturer.

The party didn't arrive back in Ealing until after midnight and yet I managed to get enough sleep and wake up in good time to attend the AAA Championships (athletics) at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre the following day.

An account of that day will follow in due course.

 

[Originally posted on Facebook, 8 May 2018, revised with extra background information for both photographs and Amiens trip, 28 June 2018]