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The image above is another fascinating period photograph from my family's collection. Seated with her favourite teddy bear in this typical early twentieth century Black Country urban scene is May Emily Sherman, my great aunt. Given May's apparent age, this photograph was taken no later than 1925. Whilst the exact location for this photograph is unknown, it is almost certain that it was captured in either Walsall or Willenhall, with Walsall being the most likely place.

May Emily Sherman was born in 1914. Her father Thomas Sherman (1878 - 1936) married Alice Russon (1879 - 1958) in 1898, both were born in Walsall. May was the youngest of Thomas and Alice's eight children, one of her older sisters was Ada Sherman (1908 to 2005), my paternal grandmother. By 1911, three years before May’s birth, two of Tom and Alice's children had sadly already died.

At the time of the 1911 census, the Sherman family were living at 6 House 9 Court, Lower Rushall Street, Walsall. In the early years of the twentieth century this was a poor, decaying and overcrowded area of the town. Life for this family and the many others resident on Lower Rushall Street would have been hard, even though many were able to find employment in the various trades that were prevalent in Walsall. May's father Tom was a plasterer by trade, so was probably in regular work but for poor wages.

Despite the hardships of their early lives, May and her siblings did go on to marry and have families of their own. May herself married and had children, she died on 29th January 1986.

The image below is a colourised version of the original shown above.