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Can anyone identify or make any educated guesses about this gentleman?

pjmburns said:
A lot of brass buttons from that period seem to feature embossed designs - particularly on a uniform. He could just be wearing a posh jacket and not be related to a uniform.
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Yes, definitely. I did think perhaps it might just be a very nice coat haha.. Still, it does seem so.. tight and done up all the way.. if you know what I mean.
 
Astoness said:
yes please when time permits would love to see the other photo as it may help with the mystery

lyn
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Lyn, here it is :) So, as I'd mentioned, I'm 97.54872% sure it's him, or else perhaps it's wishful thinking haha.. I mean, we all know there are kajillion antique photographs out there and they're not from the same place; what are the chances right? But that hair, that brow, the light eyes..!
 

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Astoness said:
i would say its the same man

lyn
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Yes right? Though it doesn't help much with the ID'ing -- that suit is quite nondescript, apart from being apparently fairly well-tailored. He looks well-groomed and educated to me, at any rate. That's why I'd hoped his older picture might be more helpful.
 
rabbit_biscuit said:
He does appear to be wearing a kind of uniform? With an unusual sort of button or badge? Or perhaps it's just a very nice peacoat. Well, if anyone has any ideas, I'm very much obliged :)
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Any chance of a higher resolution scan of the original photo?
 
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mw0njm. said:
i dont think it is the same bloke his ears are different
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Yes, I'd noted that, but I think it may perhaps be the angle -- the older one is much more frontal/forward-facing; the younger is tilted to the side (try doing it in a mirror ^-^). The eyes and brows are very close though, I think, and goodness, the hair even curls the same way haha
 
He had a widows peak which seems to have disappeared with the receding hairline in the later photo. I think the ears are obscured in the second photo. But I think it’s the same person. The first thing that struck me about the older man is he looks ill, or been through trauma (the look in the eyes) but that could just be the quality of the photo. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
He had a widows peak which seems to have disappeared with the receding hairline in the later photo. I think the ears are obscured in the second photo. But I think it’s the same person. The first thing that struck me about the older man is he looks ill, or been through trauma (the look in the eyes) but that could just be the quality of the photo. Viv.
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He does seem to have seen a lot by the time he was older. It does seem to me though that he'd always had that look of being um.. quietly amused.. like he was laughing a bit inwardly, in a sort of cynical? contemptuous? way..

Ah, I'm not much closer to finding out who he was, but I'm glad you agree it's the same man :D Honestly, I felt like it was some cosmic aligning of the stars or something that led me to find that second photo lol
 
Vivienne14 said:
In the earlier photo he might again have been wearing railway uniform depending on the job he was doing. For example see second person from the right at the back in this GWR photo. Viv.
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Yes! Thank you so much! I wish I knew what that role was exactly -- administrative perhaps. Did they pay very well I wonder? Was he what one would call a gentleman?
 
From my many years of reading railway histories I would suggest that railway careers did not pay well, using as an excuse for their parsimony the steadiness of the employment and the respect that railwaymen received from society in those days. Those men living in places like Swindon or Crewe, railway towns, benefitted from a certain amount of paternalism from the employer in the provision of dwellings, health services and institutes and libraries, but the total rewards were still not great.
 
John.
While not arguing with your comments, I would say that, at that time, most "lower class" jobs , not just railwaymen, were not well paid, The extra perks of housing, health services etc provided by the railways and some other industries was what put railwaymen and others in a much better position
 
Not all railway employees received the “extra payment” of a paternalistic nature since the infrastructure was not there to provide it, in places like Stafford or Coventry, and we should not lose sight of the highly skilled nature of many of the jobs. I think that railwaymen were still in many cases under rewarded, one of the points being the substantial exodus of railwaymen to much better payed but semi skilled employment in the motor industry.
 
John
I thought you were referring to earlier, before the motor industry existed
 
The beard suggests to me someone with maybe an education - doctor, minister, scientist, writer. If it is a uniform then sometimes firemen ( brigade) are shown with single buttoned coats as well as double breasted.
 
Johnfromstaffs said:
From my many years of reading railway histories I would suggest that railway careers did not pay well, using as an excuse for their parsimony the steadiness of the employment and the respect that railwaymen received from society in those days. Those men living in places like Swindon or Crewe, railway towns, benefitted from a certain amount of paternalism from the employer in the provision of dwellings, health services and institutes and libraries, but the total rewards were still not great.
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But I imagine at a certain level, he would have been literate, yes? I'd like to think he was educated.
Of course this is all on the assumption he was with the railways haha
 
Tinpot said:
The beard suggests to me someone with maybe an education - doctor, minister, scientist, writer. If it is a uniform then sometimes firemen ( brigade) are shown with single buttoned coats as well as double breasted.
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I did think he looked educated and quite refined; I'd mentioned before that in his younger photo especially I thought he looked like a chemist or something. Ooh would love to think he was a doctor or writer.
 
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