Sad story behind Paula's class picture

This picture was emailed in by his niece Paula Middleton, of Bishop's Castle. John was the brother of her father, Robert Gwyther, and his tragic death in a road accident was to have a shattering impact on her grandparents.

"John is the little boy with dark hair and a white shirt, seated in the very middle of the middle row, behind a boy wearing a dark jacket," says Paula.

"John was born on Boxing Day, 1929. After he did his National Service in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps from 1948 to 1950, he returned home to work in the family footwear business, also still making and repairing shoes and boots with my grandfather, Jim, and my father, Robert, who was five years younger than John.

"While in the Army, John had his own shoemaker's workshop, where his skills were usefully employed. John was a very skilled craftsman, and by my father's own account, he did not like anyone else to finish any of his work.

"As a young boy, his hobby was making model aeroplanes from balsa wood boxes, using plans that the boys were able to get out of magazines. He was very interested in vintage cars and owned an Alvis.

"One day just before Christmas in December 1952, coming home from the small shop they also ran in Bishop's Castle, John made a detour to collect some shoe repairs in Bucknell. He usually travelled via the Clun route, which is shorter.

"Setting off again, he overtook a vehicle only a mile or so from home and crashed into a lorry heading towards him. He died a few hours later, in Knighton Hospital, a few days short of his 23rd birthday.

"It is a very sad story, which devastated our grandparents, having already lost two sons in infancy.

"I wonder how on earth anyone ever deals with such loss. However, they hid it well from us. We had no idea until I was 10, when I found out by accident. My father told me that their family life was not good after John's death, but when we grandchildren came along, things changed for the better.

"Certainly, I thought that nobody could have grandparents and a great aunt who lived with them who were such good fun to be with. I could never have guessed that they had been any different. But with hindsight, it made it even more understandable that my grandmother insisted on a quick phone ring three times to signal that we had got home safely from their house.

"There are little children in that photo who may still recognise themselves!"