Wedding portrait of Alfred and Queenie Hart

Wedding portrait  of Alfred and Queenie Hart,  19 April 1918.

Despite the plain appearance of their clothing, this portrait of Alfred and Queenie Hart was taken on their wedding day, 19 April 1918.  The couple had met at their workplace, printer-publisher Whitcombe and Tombs in late 1916: Alf had worked as a type compositor since he was fifteen, and Queenie, originally from  Masterton, was a letterpress machinist.  Perhaps Queenie wore everyday garb because the couple had to fast-track their wedding plans: Alf was to embark with the 38th Reinforcements, New Zealand Field Artillery on 24 April, having completed five month's training as a gunner.

In England, Alf underwent further training with the Field Artillery and went to France in September 1918, where he was a driver of teams of horses that pulled the guns on their carriages. Once the war was over, he returned to Wellington on 26 August 1919. He went back to his old job, and he and Queenie welcomed the forst of their four children, a boy, on 24 June 1921.  The couple lived happily together into their eighties.

 

 

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