Last Day with the Foxes

Many of the significant events, milestones and rites of passage in our lives are marked by photographic commemorations. Christenings, birthdays, weddings and anniversaries all appear in family albums with comforting regularity. Yet family albums can also record more intimate moments, which are no less common.

This photographer is a 13-year-old boy. Albums compiled by people this young can often be a combination of admirably untempered enthusiasm and slipshod technical know-how. There are shots of wildlife and his friends and family in the back garden; an out-of-focus Sooty the cat gets two or three pages, nine photos in all. There is a Christmas tree piled high with presents and ‘Aunty and Uncles Silver Wedding’, both events transcribed in colour; and a boat trip to Paris and back, in black and white. Curiously, two photos of a very homely looking West Indian couple, ‘Mr and Mrs Kufore, 1963’, make an appearance in the middle.

There are six photos spread across three pages, which appear under the heading: ‘Last day with the Foxe’s (before they moved), 1966’. David Fox was the photographer’s friend. The earliest photos of him in the album are dated 1963. They chose to spend their last day together in central London, among other things, feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square, once a must-do ritual during any day trip to the capital. They may not have had to travel far, as in one photo the photographer is shown wearing his ‘42^nd Greenwich Scouts Uniform’. They took a boat trip down the Thames, viewed Cleopatra’s Needle and visited Westminster Abbey, where the Foxes and their mother were photographed in the Cloisters. In this shot, the way David looks up at his mother seems to implore.

These photos reminded me of my own experience of having a childhood friend move away, particularly the feeling of powerlessness. I met Troy Swain at the recreation ground, as we commonly did. We sat on the roundabout not the swings, a sign of the gravity of the conversation. He told me they were moving away because of his dad’s job, and he didn’t want to go. I don’t remember where they were moving to – it might as well have been Andromeda because we both knew we would never see each other again.

Nigel Martin Shephard