A FASCINATING collection of photographs recalling life in Princetown during the early part of the 20th century has been sent to the Times by a man from Dorset.
Peter Harden discovered the black and white photographs in a box which belonged to his mother, Vera Maud Smith.
Vera, a keen photographer and collector of prints, lived in Princetown during the first world war.
Her father, Richard Smith, was a prison warder at Dartmoor prison, before and during the first world war.
One of the photographs in the collection is of the warders and staff at Dartmoor Prison in 1910 — shown above. However, Peter is not sure if his father is in the picture.
Indeed, Richard's brother, Cecil Richard Henry Smith, is one of the names of fallen soldiers engraved on the first world war memorial in Princetown. Cecil enlisted in Devonport and served with the first Battalion Leinster Regiment but died, aged just 19, on the Western Front on February 15, 1915.
Peter's mother, Vera Maud Smith, a nurse, moved to Portland in 1918 and Peter himself now lives in Weymouth.
The collection of photographs includes a picture of an article about Spaghum moss — which grows on Dartmoor and in the first world war was in great demand for use to treat wounds as an antiseptic.
Peter, 62, said: 'If these photographs can serve as a piece of social or family history to anyone interested then I would be happy to send an emailed version to Times readers on [email protected]">[email protected]
The photographs will be shown periodically in the Those Were the Days column in the Times.