Comments on: Portraits From Philip Mernick’s Collection https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Sat, 13 Jul 2019 07:59:36 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Ron Bunting https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-1298186 Sat, 13 Jul 2019 07:59:36 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-1298186 jersey Devil, One of my Cousins was a very young Naval recruit, he Joined the Royal navy as a midshipman at 12 . He spent his entire career in the navy before retiring as Commander of the tanker Endevour in the RNZN.
Naval recruits still start young today but I think it’s 17 these days.

]]> By: jerseydevil https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-877927 Tue, 10 Mar 2015 07:22:28 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-877927 Some of those naval recruits and sailors look very young don’t they? They must have had such hard lives. Also, I wonder if those cops may have had the misfortune to be responders to a Ripper crime scene or two.

]]> By: Philip Mernick https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-855374 Sun, 22 Feb 2015 17:56:44 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-855374 In reply to Gary Arber, the Metropolitan Police were organised into four districts, each of five divisions in 1869. District 1 comprised G – Finsbury, H – Whitechapel, K – Stepney, N – Islington and (unlettered) Thames Division. J – Bethnal Green was added in 1886 Information from National Archives, Domestic Records Information 52.

]]> By: Bintylicious https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-855167 Sun, 22 Feb 2015 11:34:42 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-855167 I absolutely adore these photographs and love the decorative backs advertising the studios.

I am also privileged to have so many of these types of photos of my family from ages past.

They all tell a story..

]]> By: Chris F https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-854815 Sun, 22 Feb 2015 00:56:52 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-854815 Your photo of a young Freemason attracted my attention.. He isn’t actually wearing Masonic regalia but has on the sash of a fraternal society of which there were dozens during that period. The Arm & Hammer is typical of a number of organisations with links to mechanics but the emblem that looks like a phoenix could link him to the United Grand Order of the Totally Abstinent Sons of the Phoenix (Not Freemasons). I tried to find some links to the name on the sash ‘Duke’s Motto’ of which I can only find two. The first was to a former public house on Brick Lane http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dukes_Motto,_Shoreditch,_E1_(3210966878).jpg
(Many fraternal groups met in room within pubs and secondly to a hugely popular Victorian melodrama of the same name.

]]> By: Paul Shaviv / New York https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-854339 Fri, 20 Feb 2015 10:22:00 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-854339 More on the’Eastern European Gentleman’: Havinvg puzzled over this for a day, I think that the second line word is in fact a name, and is a phonetic Yiddish spelling of the surname ‘Einbinder’. (As written, it looks like ‘Einbinda’.) Einbinder is a known Jewish surname in the UK , Canadian and USA Jewish communities. A quick Google search shows quite a few London residents with that surname on ‘Ancestry.com’ Electoral Register lists for 1832 – 1965, although not being a subscriber I don’t have the individual details. Our Samuel David Einbinder doesn’t seem to appear, but if he wasn’t eligible to vote (he may not yet have been a UK citizen) he would not be on the Electoral register. The third line is still indecipherable …….

]]> By: Peter Holford https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-854187 Thu, 19 Feb 2015 20:24:47 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-854187 Fabulous collection and so many others will have been discarded over the years. They all share one thing in common – they are all anonymous, even when there is a name. Will digitisation and on-line storage change things for 20th century photos. My guess is that many will continue to be discarded and forgotten. Shame.

]]> By: Gary Arber https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-854123 Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:34:04 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-854123 The number on the collar of the 1890 policeman showed H division, the police in East London today are still H division. This means that H division has existed for at least 124 years, I would like to know when it started.
Gary

]]> By: Pauline Taylor https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-854087 Thu, 19 Feb 2015 12:52:22 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-854087 More great insights into how our ancestors dressed. The beadle at Bermondsey attended my great grandfather’s second wedding as a witness, I wonder if he turned up in an outfit like this one!!

Pauline.

]]> By: Caroline Murray https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/19/portraits-from-philip-mernicks-collection/#comment-854063 Thu, 19 Feb 2015 11:06:00 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=130454#comment-854063 Is the charming little scholar a member of a choir school? He could be mistaken for a member of the choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, today (though not of King’s, where they wear top hats!).

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