When I was gifted several boxes of photos that had belonged to Bess Middlebrook, one of the Strangest was a small photo of a Maori Warrior and a Scottish Piper. It was in terrible condition and very very dark but I enhanced it in photoshop ( I havent repaired it at all just bought out some of the detail hidden in the dark depths of it – anyway I realised very quickly this Maori Warrior was in fact Samuel Middlebrook.
I wondered what on earth this photo was all about – until I found this large print of a Parade Float and spied Samuel there – again beside the Scottish Piper.
What an interesting photo this is. Check out the Clown with the Gun!!
I suspected this was some kind of Peace Parade and I was right – Another photo of the same event was in the Auckland Weekly News in their spread on the local Peace Celebrations 7 August 1919 p042 which can be found here.
I felt these photos deserved a layout so here it is
