My great grandfather William Oliver Ross, a skipper and owner of a fishing smack, is shown here with his wife Ann (née Perfect) and their seven children. My grandfather Horace is standing at the back. The six sons all fought in the First World War.
My maternal grandmother Gertrude Hulse was born in Grimsby in 1887.
My paternal grandfather served in the Royal Naval Reserve in the First World War in minesweeping and anti-submarine activity.
Married to Eveline Ross, my mother’s sister, Tom George died when his bomber was shot down over Belgium in 1942.
My uncle Edwin Buckingham served as a telegraphist/sonar operator on submarines during the Second World War and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
My paternal grandmother Lottie Buckingham (née Gane) with her daughter Lottie and sons Harry (at the back) and Edwin.
My father Harry and his grandfather Harry Gane, who worked as a cod fisherman.
My paternal great grandfather Samuel Buckingham was born in Myton, Hull, in 1856, and is shown here with his Irish grandfather in the early 1860s. Samuel became a skipper and owner of a fishing smack. His parents and siblings all emigrated to Australia in the 1870s.
My father Harry Buckingham married my mother Doris May Ross in January 1942 in Cleethorpes. Harry was in the Merchant Navy, repeatedly crossing the Atlantic between 1939 and 1942.