I have an enormous amount of respect for our veterans, as a photographer I get to meet some extraordinary people and after reading about a local war hero I decided that I wanted to create a special portrait for Remembrance Sunday.

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The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans helped me get in contact with Alec Hall and his daughter Annie so that I could capture a set of images to celebrate his 100th Birthday. "A veteran of the African and Italian campaigns in WWII, Alec was called up aged 18 and served as a nurse with 181 Field Ambulance. In September 1944, his unit was sent to the Netherlands as part of 1st Airborne Division where they took part in Operation Market Garden, the battle for the bridge at Arnhem."

 

WWII veteran Alec Hall to celebrate his 100th birthday (taxicharity.org)

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The final three images were taken on Alec's 101st Birthday 03/06/2023.

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Sadly Alec passed away in October 2023, his story is a remarkable one so I'm pleased to share it through these portraits. I'm grateful to the Southend Echo and Essex Life for using my photographs to celebrate Alec's life, The Times will also use one image in Alec's obituary.

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I want to encourage other photographers and artists to celebrate their local veterans in a similar way. All of these images are available to media publications, museums or galleries.

 

Please contact me if you would like to support this project.