The Teal Photo Gallery

A photograph from our gallery specific to the families featured in this section will display randomly here each time you come to this page

Maternal influences

It is with great delight that I am creating another colour supplement. In part this is an administrative move as the main (red) section was getting very full and increasingly difficult to navigate around. It is also however the new area for stories, recollections and memorabilia about the maternal side of my family.

First and foremost are the pages relating to my grandfather, George Cook. He was a very keen Savoyard and I have been able to use several of his photographs to illustrate a series of reviews that I wrote a couple of years ago about the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. Aspects of his story appear on several pages in this section and these have now been brought together in a single article.

My grandmother, Miriam Naylor, came from a large family of coalminers - she had seven older brothers!. It has taken some time to tease out the branches that originated in the villages near Alfreton in Derbyshire. Their stories have now been collected together in a series of articles which can be found on Page 2 of this section.

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George Cook and the Gilbert and Sullivan Legacy

"I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable." Boo-Bah; from The Mikado.

I have already written about my grandfather, George Cook (1883 – 1968) in another article on these pages. He was a leading light in the local amateur dramatic society in Leicester in the 1920s and early 30s. I am told that he had a fine tenor voice and was on the edge of pursuing a professional career. I have photographs of him in costume from a number of staged productions. In more recent times other family members have developed a similar keen interest in Gilbert and Sullivan.

He also produced and annotated a photographic record of his fellow actors in several of the Leicester Amateurs productions at the Royal Opera House, Leicester. Many of his pictures have been reproduced here on the following pages:

"HMS PINAFORE" - 1922 by GEORGE COOK
"TRIAL BY JURY" - 1922 by GEORGE COOK
"G&S MISCELLANY" by GEORGE COOK
HMS PINAFORE / TRIAL BY JURY PROGRAMME

A couple of years ago I wrote a series of reviews that were posted on two web-based consumer opinion sites. I am currently updating these articles and illustrating them with some of these old photographs. I am dedicating this section to his memory and I hope to have this complete by the time of his birthdate in January next year.

With the addition of "The Grand Duke" the series is complete. All that is left to add is the illustrated review of the D'Oyly Carte performance of "Orpheus in the Underworld".

Page added: September 5th 2006
Last modified: March 3rd 2016

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Feature articles

TOO MANY COOKS .... SPOIL THE BRATS?
“Grandpa Walter walked all the way to Leicester from London, you know!” ...

"A WAND'RING MINSTREL I!"
Married life appears to have been happy and suited George until tragedy struck in 1916 ...

A COOK'S TOUR AROUND MY FAMILY
“Grandma Cook took in the baby and was paid to look after her ... "

AUNTIE NELLIE'S STORY: NELLIE YOULE SWANN (1894-1970)
"I gather that she was the best educated of the lot of them ..."

LETTERS FROM TWO FRONTS
"Well Nan I can't tell you what port we are going to or what cargo we have for Mr Censor won't allow it of course. "

QUITE A CHARACTER WAS MY DAD
"He was a bit of a rover in his younger days and worked in many places... "

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD FROM BARTON TO BARTON
"A good holiday beats a good husband any day!!"

EVA UNWIN: 1919 - 2008
"It is in that love that you have called her home, free from pain"

AN APPRECIATION OF GILBERT & SULLIVAN
" I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule."

Meet the editors

I am delighted to welcome 'Auntie Eva' to this page. In reality we are first cousins (once removed) but old habits - and family titles - are hard to break. Eva now lives in 'retirement' in Humberside although she will be the first to admit that she looks forward to her day trips and relishes her lunches out! She is our remaining link back to our Victorian roots in the Leicester area and with her insightful articles of memories and reminiscences about her parents, aunts and uncles and her portrait gallery this circle is just about complete.

We have continued to gather details of the descendents of Walter Cook from Grandborough and his wife Elizabeth Burditt. These add the Unwin and Putterill families to our genealogical wood with flavours of rural Leicestershire and urban Lancashire.

In the mean time, thank you for reading. Enjoy!!