An amateur photographer from Eccles has found photos he took from over 50 years ago. With the photos now developed, a father-and-daughter duo are trying to put names to faces.

George Shepherd, from Eccles, was an amateur photographer who took pictures as a hobby in the 1950s/60s.

He carried his camera everywhere with him and took photographs wherever he went, for his own personal memories.

They were never printed out, but instead added them to a stock pile of negatives, leaving them in a carrier bag to be forgotten about for 50-years. But now, the photographs are out.

George and daughter Angela are currently trying to find the people in an image from Christmas 1967.

Angela said: “I came across the photograph of the four nurses and I thought it was a brilliant picture.”

She explained: “My dad told me my mum had been in hospital whilst she was pregnant with me in 1967.

“She had gone into Park Hospital, as it was then called, now known as Trafford General, and she had spent her entire Christmas in the hospital so my dad took a photograph of the nurses who looked after her.

“What we would love to do is find any relatives left of those nurses, I think they will probably be in their 70’s by now, and reunite them and my mum and dad, so they can still say thanks for looking after her.”

Since sharing the story across social media, one nurse came forward, Marie Hooson, 80, identified herself as the nurse on the second left in the image.

George and Angela have now donated the print to Trafford General’s Macular Treatment Centre, after wanting it to feature on the memorabilia wall at the hospital.

George Shepherd with Sister Karen Scott at the Macular Treatment Centre at Trafford General Hospital. credit: Angela Shepherd

The memorial wall at Trafford General dates back to the 1940’s, when it was known as Park Hospital. Famous for it being the first hospital that the NHS was launched from.

George’s photographs also appeared in an exhibition over the summer at Eccles Community Gallery. ‘A Trip Down Memory Lane’ showed 80 of George’s best photos that captured the people and the place of Eccles.

A popular picture from Eccles exhibition. Credit: George Shepherd

He often took photographs of his childhood home, streets where he lived, places where he went as a young man. He never imagined 50 years later they’d be up in an exhibition.

Angela said: “We were overwhelmed with the success, it was amazing that 150 people came on the first day and 400 on the Saturday.

“It was bringing families back together.

“My dad seems to catch the moment where he doesn’t ask everyone to stand there and smile. You have them in natural surroundings.”

A popular picture in a pub at the Eccles exhibition. Credit: George Shepherd

“I always knew my dad had a stockpile of negatives and I was always really curious to find out what was on them so last year I said to my dad: ‘Right give me the negatives I am going to get them all digitally scanned and we will see what is there’ and so that is what I did and it has been an ongoing project ever since.”

“A lot of people when they have seen the photographs of themselves in my dad’s exhibition or seen family members, quite often the emotion and the joy of somebody finding a photograph of their mother or a picture they didn’t know existed has been one of the positives and a big highlight for my dad during the exhibition.”

“I appreciate the quality of the photographs and I am really excited for the ones I have just taken to be scanned. There are some absolutely brilliant images on there that we can’t wait to share with everybody and we want people to see them and come along to relive the moment my dad has captured.”

George’s work will next appear in the Salford Museum and Art Gallery next year, starting December 2020 to April 2021.

Get in touch if you recognise any of the nurses in the image or have seen yourself in any of George’s photos.

Image Credit: George Shepherd and Angela Shepherd

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