Images(2)

Ralph Hall

Datec.1939 - 1945

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Object numberPRGlover

DescriptionThese photographs from the private collection of historian James Gardiner show Ralph Hall, the life partner of architect Montague Glover immortalized in hundreds of domestic photographs taken by his lover. Ralph Hall was born in 1913 and grew up at Vine Street Buildings, Bermondsey, the son of a riverside labourer. He met Monty in 1930 and despite Monty being 15 years his senior and from the upper classes the two fell in love and became a couple for the rest of their lives. They were separated during WWII when Ralph was drafted into the RAF and their continuing relationship is recorded in a series of love letters written by Ralph to Monty back home and chronicled in Gardiner's book 'A Class Apart'. Their relationship was presumably discreet and Ralph took the official role of being Monty's 'caretaker' but it is clear from the surviving photographs and letters addressed to 'My darling Monty' that they were in love throughout their lives together, living at their house Little Windovers in Warwickshire until the 1980s.

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