The Burnham Yacht Building Company
Malting Yard - Motorboat
by Paul N Brown
Effie Brown's favourite brother John was born in Kent in 1891. He would have been at Caister and Goldhanger prior to the family moving to Burnham in 1904.
His father, Coastguard John Veitch, paid £10 for his son's apprenticship with The Burnham Yacht Building Company in April 1907. A reciept was written out by the company boss Mr. H C Smith .
Tragically John was killed in the last few days of WWI having survived many horrors of the time.
Please let me know if you have any more information on Burnham Yacht Company or
can identify any more people in the picture below. -
>> CLICK HERE << to watch The Burnham Shipwrights - a song written by Mark Hickman and inspired by the memory of John Veitch and others who worked in the Burnham boatyard 100 years ago.
Click name on the list or red caption on the picture for zoomed picture and more detail. Click button on right to remove captions and allow print version.
- John Veitch - Effie's favourite older brother
- Mr. H C Smith - Boss of The Burnham Yacht Building Company.
- Left group of people - Thought to show Coles brothers (both may have been killed in the war) as well as H C Smith and John Veitch .
- Right group of people - No names known
- Close up of new motorboat - No names known
For a High Resolution version (340K) Click Here
The postcard to the left was posted from Burnham in 1908. This was a particularly interesting year for motor boat racing since it was the first and only year that motor boat races have been officially included in an Olympic Games.
The Summer Olympics of 1908 were originally intended to be hosted in Rome but moved to London when Italian funds were diverted to aid Naples recover the devastation caused by a Vesuvious eruption in 1906.
Three classes of water motorsports were held in Southampton water in very bad weather and were not exactly spectator events! However, on the Burnham postcard it is just possible to make out people standing on The Quay watching the speeding boat.