Portrait A
(autocorrected x2)
Portrait A reverse
Portrait B
Portrait B reverse
Portrait C
Portrait C reverse
Of these images, 'Portrait C' is clearly the earliest, or more correctly the earlier, as 'Portrait A' and 'Portrait B' are clearly one and the same though of different states of preservation.
'C' is obviously a graduation photograph, though the date at the bottom would put him just a month short of 19 – surely too young to be a university graduate, and he's certainly not recorded as an alumnus of the University of Glasgow.
Annotated in pencil by a Gueritz, I'd guess, as Val Findlay became a Gueritz on marriage. Or Cousin James.
JSF is of course his sister Jessie Smith Findlay, 'Aunt Jessie', tireless family archivist.
'Portrait A' is clearly of a later date, to judge by the slight moustache, and the dates confirm this. The annotation describes him as great grandfather, and so is obviously of my own generation. Again, I'd guess a Gueritz, or Cousin James perhaps.
'Portrait B' is doubly interesting. Firstly, the inscription at the top is clearly in the hand of Aunt Jessie, but why 'C'est au moi'? And what is that final word of hers?
Secondly, somebody has obviously taped over the name of his first offspring – Eleanor Dixon Valentine Findlay. I'd guess that was Val herself, or proxy, who had grown to loathe the fact of his very existence. Even my own Aunt Jane referred to him as a gaolbird best forgotten.
The only person who consistently stood up for his memory was Val's brother-in-law, my grandfather Robert Waddell, the husband of Hannah Findlay.