George French, aka Hooty.

[leefer]

Around 1905,look at his clothes,that is a windmill in his hand and he sold them for a penny,Hooty would mimick the Swindon works hooter for farthings.
All towns etc had there characters...Hooty was a well known Swindon character back in them days.

 

[gibbo]

Love it Lee. A picture is worth a thousand words

 

[pramclub]

I haven't heard of him before - that's a wonderful photo. Several families named French in Swindon - wonder if he's related to any of them?

Is this part of the Swindon Collection?

 

[leefer]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal/collections/72157621747949715/

Yes it is pramclub...under the Swindon people,i particularly am interested in Edith New the famous suffragette,some good pics on here of her to....be warned though the amount of pics on Flickr is incredible and i still havn't seen them all:biggrin:....i try and match the old places with how it is today,shops etc,i copied Hooty and just pasted it onto here as i think its a great pic.

There are 1300 pics of Swindon people alone!
Alfred Williams is a great fave of mine also.......regards,Lee

 

[leefer]

This image is not from the collection but indeed from Le Petit Journal,the Paris newspaper,it shows two suffragetes being carried around the streets of London after release from Holloway prison,one of them being Edith New.
Born and raised in Swindon she eventually settled in London to become a teacher once the right for woman to vote had been secured.
Brave ladies in a then man world some paid with there lives including the famous incident when one threw herself in front of the Kings horse during the Derby.
I like this pic because it shows that it was big news at the time........even in Paris.