House labels
Oct 15
Just musing about the labeling on the photos of the houses … if this album did belong to E.L.C., wouldn’t he label his brother’s house something like “Lewis’s House”, and then E.L.C. House would be “Our house in Peking” (although that would be kind of long). So, as someone previously said, it is either a naming convention used by E.L.C., or the album was labeled by someone who knew these people, but was none of them.
Excellent point Karen. The thing is, there is no reason to beleive the album belonged to anyone referenced within its pages. That’s why I suggested the album could have belonged to Charles and Violet Morling. Certainly they knew the Cockell’s very well. ELC and likely LVC. Certainly, it would make sense for them to take so many photos of their time in China. And it would also explain why the Cockell’s house was labeled E.L.C House. Ah, but this would also mean that Morling knew of WAA as well. And the mysterious CCS.
A theory to explain this, which I discussed over a glass of something with Sandra in October 2009, coincides with a comment of Evelyne’s about ELC travelling with staff. That is that the album might have been put together by a Chinese member of his staff. I do not think that there are any definite articles on any of the captions and their rather stilted style could be explained by their being written by someone for whom English and English idiom was foreign. Did ELC have a loyal Chinese retainer, I wonder?