REGARDING the picture you published on Friday, September 9, which appeared on the Letters Page, the gentleman on the extreme left in front of the tram and wearing hat and moustache was my English grandfather, Frederick Biggs.

He was at this time a pawnbrokers' manager working at Fincher in Lowesmoor, was married with three children and in his mid-30s.

He was an excellent clay pigeon shooter and might have been useful as a soldier but his boss opposed his volunteering for the forces because he was deemed to be too useful to him at the shop.

He succeeded in preventing my grandfather's volunteering and, for that reason, I believe this picture would have been taken in August, 1914, just before the war commenced.

ROGER F de BOER,

Birmingham.