Tom Critchley, chemist from Knowsley Road

 This is a picture of young Tom Critchley, Mollie's uncle Tom, my grandfather. He wrote letters to her and her mother as he and his wife Annie Louise experienced the London blitz. This picture was taken in the greenhouse The Homestead, Knowsley Road, St Helens. My guess is that it was taken in the early years of the 20th century when he first went out to work. Later he married Annie Louise in Millom, Cumberland and was employed by Johnson Matthey. When he went for his first interview, he got lost in London when he tried to find the firm's Hatton Garden premises. Mollie remembers him:

    "Uncle Tom did very well at Cowley Grammar School, his name being on the merit board even in my time. He was a chemist and once, when a boy, he caused a shattering explosion on the railway wall at the back of the house, when attempting some experiment or other. He does not seem to have been all that strong, as at one stage, threatened with T.B. (I think) he went on a voyage to South America for his health, signing on as a supernumerary member of the crew. Despite all this he was good at cricket and very interested in photography, being one of the first to experiment with colour transparencies in 1938-1939.  Just before the First World War he got a job in London. Soon after he married Annie Darvell they lived in Barnet for many years before moving to a new house in Oakwood. Their two sons were called Ronald and Thomas (Tom).  Tom senior was an analytical chemist with Johnson Matthey in Brimsdown, where he designed their new silver nitrate plant as well as introducing several new processes. He had at least one Patent to his name."

     Also taken in the greenhouse at Knowsley Road is the picture below, which may be of Tom Crichley's own grandmother, Ellen Melling nee Wright, who died in 1907. The picture is about contemporary with the one above, which was probably taken in the first decade of the 20th century. It is one of the pictures from Phoebe Critchley's (Auntie Pe's) photograph book, so it is likely to be one of the family.