Wedding photo of Agnes Long and Harold Frederick Kent
Su Leslie’s posts about kisses and weddings inspired me to get back in to my family research and look at wedding photos I have in my possession. Unfortunately, only two. In fact this one does not belong to my family at all but to my children’s father’s family.
Harold Frederick Kent was their great-grandfather and Agnes Long, of course, their great-grandmother. The wedding took place on 3 April 1926 in the Mount Pleasant Methodist Church in Ballarat, Victoria. If I didn’t have the date at least I would know from the fashion that it was in the 1920s.
I was recently given the Kent family tree already researched plus some information about most of the family members. However, I don’t yet have a feel for them – and maybe I never will as they are not my blood relations. That remains to be seen. From research originally done by Ronald Kent from Warwick, this is what I know about this photo.
Harold Kent was born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on 9 august 1901 to Charles Kent and Charlotte Ida Elizabeth de Vos. He married Agnes Long who was born in Ballarat, Victoria to Dorcas Pearce Dunn and William Henry Long on 13 May 1899.
Born in England, Harold’s father, Charles joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment around 1887 and served in both India and Ceylon. When the Battalion returned to England, he remained in Ceylon and joined the Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers. He married Charlotte on 28 December 1895. At that time he was a Drill Instructor and by the time he was discharged in 1910 he held the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major.
So how did Harold end up marrying a girl from Ballarat? Well in 1910, the Kents left Ceylon and lived in Warwick in England. There were 9 children in the family and they all attended good “public” schools. Harold was sent to Kings Grammar in Warwick (the third oldest in England after Eton and Winchester). The family then returned to Ceylon in 1913 and Harold attended St Joseph’s College in Colombo and then St Anthony’s College. He excelled at school and was offered a place to study medicine at Cambridge University. However, he never followed this up because all the places were first given to returning servicemen and he missed out. Instead he became a Merchant Seaman. He remained at sea for just a few years and then jumped ship at Geelong! In an effort to get as far away from the ship as possible he took the first available train which took him to Ballarat. Of course this is where he met and married Agnes. As a point of interest, Harold became a painter and decorator and continued this until his death in 1975.
Harold and Agnes had six children including my children’s grandfather, (William) Frank Kent. At this stage I don’t know much more about the marriage of Harold and Agnes other than that Agnes died just four weeks after her husband.
lynnie57 