A Decade in Snapshots: My Great-Grandfathers Photo Album (1939 - 1948) #1

I recently took a trip to Brisbane to visit my Grandmother, and while I was there, I scanned her photographs.

One piece I was most excited for was the battered and bruised photo album my great-grandfather, Walton Hooper, kept from 1939 until his tragic, premature death in 1948. With all the pages scanned and digitised, I’m taking a trip through the photographs he took over the span of a decade — including many taken during his time at war.

This is photograph #2 in the album.

The picture shows a beautiful-looking building with a family group standing on the stairs.

If we zoom in, it looks like it could be the four Hooper children (Walton, Brian, Betty & Lorna), their mother (Pearl), father (William), and maybe a grandmother.

My best guess for who is standing on the porch

I asked Grandma if this home was my great-grandfather's family home — the home he grew up in — and she confirmed that it was and that she and her two brothers used to take the bus to Warwick to stay with their grandparents there.

The house is still standing today. It has been renovated and lost some of its old-world charm — I’m trying my best not to judge the renovators too much (I know houses were built much smaller back then)… but I do have a strong dislike for the grey/beige box look everyone seems so desperate to achieve these days. What once was a wrap-around veranda has been boxed in, and a large garage has been attached to the side of the home.

But then I spotted one little saving grace… a plaque. Just below the light on the right-hand side of the door. When I zoomed it, I saw it… Bunbury. It made my heart smile that they had at least kept the house’s name.

Bunbury

Underneath the image in my great-grandfather’s photo album, we see “Bunbury” Wood St., Warwick. 1939. So what of the name… why or how would a house get the name Bunbury? (as far as I know, it isn’t a family name). Grandma said she thinks someone told her why at some point, but she couldn’t recall; she would ask a cousin. In the meantime… Any clues? Leave me a comment with your thoughts!