"Raising the wind. 'Ome sweet 'ome"

Photographed by J C Dinham c 1900

© Gordon Higham

In this photograph, James Dinham has spotted a man who is making what may be his last chance to do just this. Men who joined the army in the 19th Century were often away from England for years on end. With so many people unable to read and write, there was often no way for families to keep in touch during these long separations. When soldiers returned to England and were stood down, many made their way back to their villages and were stunned to discover their loved ones had all died or emigrated and nobody remained who remembered them, let alone offer them shelter while they got back on their feet.

Most men returned to the towns looking for work but the army had given them none of the skills employers then wanted - soldiering was all they knew. so they rapidly gravitated to the bottom of the pile and most were reduced to begging to stay alive. Those with some sort of musical skill either got together in small bands or went solo as a one-man-band or an instrumentalist.

This chap is at least offering something for the money he hopes will be forthcoming and by their faces, his audience is listening to someone who can play a recognisable tune. But James Dinham has noticed two things - although not an old man, the trumpeter uses a walking stick so has he been wounded? And look at his headgear - a peaked pillbox hat, uniform for many soldiers of his day.

Several of those houses we see behind him in Pimlico were "common lodging houses" (the official description) where a man could get a quarter share in a bed for the night for 2d  - he has to "raise the wind" for that and for food and tomorrow, he has it all to do again. Not exactly a hero's homecoming hence Dinham's ironic suggestion that the tune he is playing is " 'Ome sweet 'ome."