Figure 1.-- The earliest portrait of Charley was made in 1864. He looks to be about 5 years old. His suit has a small jacket, but it only slightly cut away at the boittom. There are slant front pockets. He wears a small collar, shaped rather like an Eton collar, but much smaller. The suit has a vest (waistcoat). He has been breached, but his hair looks to have been curled, at least the sides. Image coutesy of the MD collection.

Charley was the oldest brother. He appears to have been born about 1859. He must have worn dresses as a little boy, although we have no early portraits. The earliest portrait of Charly was made in 1864. He looks to be about 5 years old. He has been breached, but his hair looks to have been curled, at least the sides. I have not seen a hair style quite like this before. He wears a light colored knickers suit with a white straw hat.

Clothing

THe available images provide us some information on how Charley was dressed.

Dresses

He must have worn dresses as a little boy, although we have no early portraits.

Knickers Suit (1864)

The earliest portrait of Charley was made in 1864. He looks to be about 5 years old. His suit has a small jacket, but it only slightly cut away at the boittom (figure 1). There are slant front pockets. He wears a small collar, shaped rather like an Eton collar, but much smaller. The suit has a vest (waistcoat). He has been breached, but his hair looks to have been curled, at least the sides. I have not seen a hair style quite like this before. He wears a light colored knickers suit with a white straw hat. Notice the wide hat band and wide streamer. This is one of the few images we have showing the boys' headwear. I'm not sure how common these boaters were with ringlet curls. We note very few American boys wearing ringlet curls with boaters. Notice how in these earlyportraits that the ubjects lean on a chair t steady themselves--needed because of the slow film speeds.

Knickers Suit (1866)

We notice another portait of Charley in 1866 in a dark suit with much more formally done ringlet curls. Charley looks to be about 7 years old in this potrait. He has a boater hat with a dark hat band. We do not notice a stramer. There is virtually no collar, but a small little cross tie. The jacket is cut away at the bottom and worn with a vest (waistcoat). The suit is a very plain knickers suit worn with dark long stockings and strap shoes. Curiously his ringlets are much more formally done than the ones when he was a younger boy.

Long Pants Suit (1872)

we have two portraits taken of Charley in 1872. He would have been about 13 years old. He wears a long pants suit. Ot looks like it may be a wool flannel suit. It is plain without any pattern. There is a matching vest (waistcoat). He wears a shirt that appears to have a small pointed collar. With it he wears a kind of ribbon tie. For some reason he has not combed his hair for the portrait.

Adult Life

The 1901 Census gives us some information about Charley at age 41. He was by then after the dath of his father the head of the family and still living at Longstowe Hall, he has a wife (Helen age 35) and two children Charles age 9 and Barbara age 2 months. His occupation is given as 'living on own means' but he is also a J.P (Justice of the Peace), Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Cambridge and an Honorary Major of the 4th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. The domestic staff now only numbers 5, a Cook, a Nurse, a Coachman, a Parlourmaid and a Housemaid. This probably reflects the smaller number of people living in the house, but maybe Charles was living in reduced circumstances and this was one of the reasons the house was sold a few years later. It would be interesting to know why his mother and all of his siblings moved out of the family home after the death of the father, perhaps there was some conflict or it was just the 'done thing'.