Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

Chapter 1
Northumberland: Boy on the beach
.... "like a boy playing on the sea-shore,...., whilst the great ocean of truth lay all
undiscovered before me."
Newton: in Brewster l855
O
n 8 June, 1819 a marriage took place in Colombo, Ceylon, ‘between William
Laws, Schoolmaster Sergeant. H.M. 19th Regiment, Bachelor and Sarah Dixon,
spinster, both residing at Point de Galle in the island aforesaid and professing
the Protestant Religion’. William and Sarah were great grandparents on my father's side
of the family. (I don't have any information on my mother's side.) They had two sons,
William Maitland, a Grocer, who founded a chain of stores, still in business in the North
East of England, Laws Stores. The other, my grandfather, was Peter Maitland Laws who
married Alice Harriet Balls. He was professional photographer with a studio in Blackett
Street, Newcastle, at a time when professional photography was in its early stages. The
examples of his work that I have are admirable, both technically and artistically,
although they are only portraits. However, the only one of my grandparents I remember
at all was my maternal grandmother, Alice, who lived with us during my childhood.
My grandfather on mother's side was a successful Builder and quite well off, living in
Tynemouth, and my maternal grandmother was of Scottish descent.
Peter Maitland had three sons, my uncles: Albert; Norman (who married Fredda
Florence Howe); and Malcolm, my Father (who married Florence May Heslop). And
there were two sisters, my aunts: Alice (who married George Easten); and Florence (who
married Charles Kesting). I don't remember my uncles and have a hazy memory of only
one of my aunts, Alice. My Uncle George Easten taught Art at Armstrong College,
Newcastle, (later part of Durham University and the University of Newcastle). Uncle
Norman and Fredda had two sons and a daughter Rita, who married Peter Jensen and
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