Great photo! I have a couple of dad at Keswick - No.4 - must be early as they're all wearing their Parent Regimental headgear ... an assortment.
And unless I'm mistaken - taken down at the edge of Derwentwater, just past where the "lake buses" put in now, along from the the old wooden piers. Always strange to see a "period" picture taken somewhere you know very well
It looks to me like it was taken next on the lake shore to the jetties for Keswick Launch, Jeff? If so the the people seen at the top pf the wall will be on the path to Friar's Crag?
Hi, there may not have been an official path to Friar's Crag during the war...or even before; a lot of what we know in the Lake District is post-war and post-National Park status My parents went there on their honeymoon, and they went back regularly ever after, and were always amazed by how the landscape has changed. I've a couple of 1946-47 motorcycle mags around the house that feature the Lake District occasionally, and the landscape....particularly the tree cover around the lakes...is noticeably different. Interesting to see the civvie in the back row - I wonder, are they actually waiting for the ferry to take them somewhere around the lake??? And flat pouches - whatever they're doing, it isn't a "live fire" exercise! Though a couple of Thompsons to be seen in the photo... Also - a brave motorcycle outrider has brought his motorcycle right down onto the gravel beach! I'm saying outrider as opposed to Don-R as there looks to be a route card on top of the headlight binnacle - the lorry/lorries that brought the Commandos there must be back out of shot. There's a couple of pistol-armed NCOs in the front row, one very nattily dressed, the other standing beside him with the clipboard under his arm - but the officer accompanying the party is actually very retiring - he's the short guy up in the back row trying hard not to stand out - but he's got the only pair of binoculars in the party round his neck ....which is the only uniformed neck with a collar and tie around it! Although I've come across a lot of information over the years regarding wartime in the Lakes here and there - I don't EVER remember seeing in ANY of the Lake District's many bookshops any combined or comprehensive WWII history of the Lake District
