IN 1948 the great Picture Post photographer Bert Hardy visited the Gorbals and took what would be seen as a classic shot of two local young boys in the street.
In the words of the National Galleries Scotland, “it became one of Hardy’s most iconic works, capturing childhood optimism beyond the poverty and squalor that most families experienced whilst crammed into the area’s tenements.”
When Hardy published his autobiography in 1985, interest was stirred anew in the photograph. Just what had happened to the two young boys? In July that year, the Evening Times managed to bring them together.
George Davis, 44, and Leslie Mason, 45, had lost touch with each other shortly after the photograph was taken. Both still lived in the city, and, it turned out, both had been making attempts to find the other. It took the paper to reunite them. “It was a marvellous piece of detective work,” said George. “I had this continual correspondence going between the Times and Bert Hardy, and eventually Leslie turned up.”
In 2011 it was reported that Leslie had died, aged 70. George had died in 2002, at the age of 61. Bert Hardy, who always said that the original photograph was one of his personal favourites, died in July 1995, ten years to the month after George and Leslie had been re-united.
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