The medical casebook from hanwell includes 2 photographs of the man who was ostensibly my great-grandfather. i say "ostensibly" because this post will show why there is doubt in that regard. It took me a while to get permission to publish the pictures as they are owned by West London Mental Health Trust, but once I had provided all the information they needed, they kindly said I could go ahead.
Being visually impaired and unable to see and comment on the photos myself, I include here the comments of a few family members:
well Lee, the face has absolutely no resemblance to Grandad, not even a slight bit. The plot thickens me thinks. #Fakefather
Lee I have had a look at the picture and it does not resemble Grandad in any way. The whole make-up of the face and ears are so different. The nose and the ears and face more elongated.
He is very different to Grandad. Seems like a small man with much slighter features, dark eyes and sloping shoulders, dark hair which could even be a redhead. Also the nose. The nose is not strong, and to me that royal looking nose is quite important. Looking at photos of a younger Grandad, his nose is quite recognisable and has been passed down through to us.
This brings me back to wondering whether this David Scott Ritchie was my grandfather's biological father. From the comments of my family members, it is obvious that they have serious doubts. I've tended to be more cautious because the alternative [that he was the illegitimate son of a gentleman] is too complicated to deal with on a number of levels. Yet I can't ignore the fact that this man married my great-grandmother Maude 6 weeks before Grandad was born. That's why I'm going the DNA route, hoping that the nature of the connection can be established once and for all.
Photo credit: London Metropolitan Archives, City of London.
Hanwell Asylum [later Saint Bernard's Hospital] Collection.
Item number: H11/HLL/B/20/037,
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