Welcome to the Leggatt Family
Preface
This website is to celebrate the life’s of two remarkable people Alf and Joan Leggatt. It has been built to preserve memories and pass down an account of ancestral lines for the benefit of younger generation and relatives. You are welcome to read about the family, enjoy the photographs and watch the videos that have been collected over the years. The website is, and probably will be for sometime, work in progress and a hobby mine Gail Rochelle nee Leggatt (youngest daughter). Also contributing to website as family researcher Susan Penelope Knowler nee Leggatt (second eldest daughter). Special recognition goes to Barry John Martin (brother in law, husband of Jill eldest daughter) for his account of the fishing years.
The focus of this website is around Alf and Joan and their children. It does not include relationships of descendants. Obviously, personal information can be sensitive online and permissions of those directly documented has been granted. Should anyone viewing this website be affected or not want to be mentioned, please contact the owner Gail Rochelle at gailrochelleleggatt@gmail.com explaining your circumstances. Likewise if you wish to make contributions or there are mistakes in the editing, please feel free to make contact. The intention is to provide and accurate and entertaining account of Alf and Joan’s lives for the pleasure of those who are interested.
Further Introduction to this website that explains its scope, intention, background to navigation
The Parents are Alf and Joan Leggatt. The website showcases their lives from childhood years, when they first met, continuing through the different chapters of their lives until their retirement. The menu at the top of the page (in grey) has dropdown menus documenting the different chapters. The Grandparents are the parents of Alf (Paternal) and Joan (Maternal) You could easily be confused as Alf’s fathers name is exactly the same. They are both Alfred Stanford Leggatt. The Children are Alf and Joan’s children and The Grandchildren Alf and Joan’s grandchildren.
The white menu on the left of the page is where you can find interesting media assets. Many of the archived photos are originals and passed down through the generations. It is when you reach the 3rd Generation that you discover it is difficult to remember all the names, so we feel a sense of duty to the Leggatt family descendants to tag names and record wherever possible. Video and audio files have also been uploaded and in the case where the assets can be found in museums, there will be a link to a different website or YouTube. Many publications are no longer available but the family hold the original books and written a short description of their content.
Most significant times that revolutionised the fishing industry
1956 - Alfred Leggatt receives MBE for services to the Fishing Industry - Awarded by Queen Elizabeth II
For services to the Fishing Industry, Alfred Leggatt is awarded the MBE and then in later years, the Coronation Medal for further services to the Fishing Industry. It was said that Alf revolutionised fishing methods by using pair trawling (carrying a net between two boats) and converting the Echo Sounder, previously used for detecting submarines in the war, to finding shoals of fish. He also redesigned the inshore boats that are commonly used today.
Short Compilation of Cine Film
Alf Leggatt was keen cinematographer in his early years and produced a great deal of cine film footage including fishing and family life. He owned “state of the art” equipment in his day and one of the first to film in colour. Over time, this footage became unplayable as the film became stretched in the projector. In the 1970’s Alf converted the cine films himself (before commercial converters were widely available) by playing them on a screen and capturing them with a VHS camera. Although the quality isn’t that good by todays standards, it did safeguard the film, preserving valuable memories for the family.
In 2002, Alf’s VHS films were digitalised and made into DVDs. Although this media is still vulnerable to damage, the video is now stored in “the cloud” and made available through this website. A short sample of the footage to Alf Leggatt”s uncut video can be seen here
