Family Photographs and Migrant Memories: Representing Women’s Lives

Abstract

In April 2000 Phyllis Cave responded to my press appeal for the stories of British migrants who had taken up the postwar assisted passage to Australia but subsequently returned to Britain. She sent a short account of her migration in 1969 with husband Colin and three small children, together with a selection of her “best” photographs from the time. Among the photos was this image (Figure 9.1) that Phyl described as “my husband’s family seeing us off at Southampton,” shown top left and including the lady in the check coat waving her hand, the man beside her with a child, the three to their left and, in front, Colins brother with the camera and binoculars.1