Grandad

This photo of a photo captures my maternal grandad, Charles Otto Vollmer, as a young man. He was born in Chelsea during 1901, the son of a German immigrant photographer, Arthur Vollmer. Grandad had an older sister, Mabel, and a younger sister, Hilda.

Having a German surname didn't do you a lot of favours in London during the Great War, so Arthur emigrated to America during 1916 and ended up in Maryland. Mabel and Hilda followed in 1920, where they married other immigrants [from Italy and Spain, respectively].

My grandad moved to New Zealand where he met and married my grandmother, Florence - an immigrant from Ireland. Grandad lived to a ripe of old age [despite smoking all his life], and died in his sleep during 1986.

Grandad and I were best mates. He would drive me wherever I wanted to go, he taught me how to play cribbage and took me to see the first Rocky film when it came out at the pictures in New Zealand.

I still miss him even though he's been gone nearly 30 years, so this photo of him as a young man with a glint in his eye is a prized possession. I also seem to have some of the Vollmer family wanderlust in my blood, as I'm a displaced New Zealander living in Scotland. Grandad's British birth helped secure my right to stay and work in the UK, so I owe him that as well.

Thanks, grandad.