Bootmaker in Tripoli, Picture of the Week for 24th January 2011

January 24th 2011 would have been the 86th birthday of John Sinclair Gilbert, who was a photographer. He was also my father and saw both me and my daughter take up photography too, before he died in 1999.

Tripoli, Bootmaker C 1956

This photograph, taken in 1955 or early 1956, is one of several craftsmen photographed by John in Tripoli, Libya, whilst we were living there. I was four years old and first went to school there.We were evacuated en-famille, when the Suez crisis blew up, because the country was no longer considered safe for British women and children. As a doctor in the Royal Army Medical Corps, John stayed behind and only returned to England later in the year.

The people of Libya have had many troubles since, we wish them peace and prosperity.