The Journey Out
His passport shows essential information – his height 5 feet 4 inches (His nephew 5 feet 7 inches – both small men), blue eyes and black hair. (His older sister had auburn hair and green eyes – an indication of similar Scots ancestry?). His date of birth – 8th August 1899 – in Nottingham.
John arrives in Port Said on October 15th 1924. His photo shows the SS Mangalore with an arrow pointing to the casino, top left, a white building – possibly the Casino Palace Hotel (?). Also the edge of his boat on the left as he is obviously leaning over the side.
John also sent a postcard home to his sister from here. Her handwriting, much later, in the top right is to identify the card for the benefit of her son, John’s nephew.
John arrives in Calcutta on November 2nd 1924. He looks very trim.
The other photographs taken on the boat are very poor but they are included here because they show so few passengers. John is reduced to photographing the crew, so the SS Mangalore is definitely not a passenger liner. It all looks a bit forlorn.
