Allahakbarrie photographs

[Allahakbarrie]

I am writing a book at the moment about Barrie's cricket team the Allahakbarries. I am trying to track down some pictures that were taken at Barrie's country hideaway Black Lake Cottage in 1905 by Edgar Horne. In the 2003 Yale University Press edition of The Lost Boys one of these photos appears on p.123. But Mackail, in his biography of Barrie, alludes to the fact that there were many more pictures taken on this occasion.

Please let me know if you have any idea where I can find these photographs or, indeed, any other photos of the Allahakbarries at play.

Many thanks,
Kevin Telfer

[Robert Greenham]

Try David Rayvern Allen's book 'Peter Pan and Cricket' (Constable,1988). It should think it is an essential reference for your purposes.

You may also like to look at my own little book. No photos of the Allahakbarries, but my grandmother was the Barries' housekeeper at Black Lake Cottage when the team played matches at nearby Frensham and Farnham, and I include something about these.

[Allahakbarrie]

Thanks for your reply. I noticed the book about your grandmother, which looks very interesting, and I will certainly buy a copy.

I have the David Rayvern Allen book sitting next to me at the moment but it only features the exact same photograph from Black Lake Cottage in 1905 as Andrew Birkin's book with Michael Llewelyn Davies standing in the middle of the group holding a cricket ball. My quest at the moment is to try and track down the other pictures which were taken by Edgar Horne on that same day (and possibly others).

Horne lived at Hall Place in Shackleford just down the road from Lower Bourne, and the Allahakbarries played a number of games there. It is now Aldro preparatory school. He was, I believe, MP for South West Surrey from 1910 to 1922 and a chairman of Prudential Insurance.

[andrew]

Hi Kevin, I too would love to see any other photos taken by Edgar Horne, either on that day or any other. However - and at the risk of sounding unduly pessimistic - I'm pretty certain that Mackail was referring to the dozen other photos of Barrie and Michael, evidently taken on that same day to judge from Michael's clothes and shoes, which are the same in all the photos. If you go to the database and search for "1905", they're all there, including the one I used in my book (and I think also used by Audrey Lucas in the book about her father, E V Lucas - also possibly in "Dear Turley" = Charles Turley Smith). Happy hunting!

[Allahakbarrie]

Thank you, Andrew. I'm sure it's very much a long shot that anything else from Horne will turn up, but after a recent exciting find I have great faith that things are capable of appearing from the ether . . .

A further Allahakbarrie question, though. In the Lost Boys you cite 1890 as the first occasion that the Allahakbarries played. Yet Mackail and others say that it was in fact 1887. Do you disagree with them, and if you have a reason for doing so would you please let me know what it is.

Many thanks.
kevin.

[andrew]

1887 is undoubtedly right since Mackail is virtually infallible! How amazing that no one has ever pointed out my mistake before - even Nico, who was a passionate cricketer. If the book ever goes into another edition, I shall make sure the date is corrected!