This family photograph, probably taken in the late 1880’s when the family was living in Freiburg shows all the children gathered round their parents – Thomas and Emilie Waddington. Vera, the youngest is sitting on the floor. Going round from left to right:

• Ethel Waddington (1871 – 1933) married a young doctor Robert Moon, who fought in the Boer War, and later became a senior physician in London. He also wrote a number of medical books and stood unsuccessfully for parliament as a Liberal candidate on several occasions. Ethel Moon was an intellectual and was active in the suffragette movement. Vera stayed with the Moons at their home at 50 Green Street, off Park Lane, when she was studying at the Slade. They had four children.
• Percy Waddington (1869 – ?) went abroad, possibly to Africa; he is not mentioned in Vera’s diaries after about 1903.
• Violet Waddington (1868 – 1948) married George Gott and lived in India for some years, before returning to England and settling eventually in Lymington. They had three children.
• Charles Waddington (1865 – 1946) was headmaster of the Mayo College for Princes in Ajmer from 1903-1917. Vera visited him there in 1911/12. He returned to England to act as tutor to Prince Ali, son of the Aga Khan but later went back to India and worked for the Maharaja of Jodhpur. He married Ethel Caroline Stocker and they had three children.
• Mabel Waddington (1872 – 1921) was Vera’s constant companion. She remained unmarried and looked after their father after his wife’s death in 1909 until 1921, when he died. She, Vera and the General would go on long holidays together, including to China. She had a lovely singing voice and lived a full life, making music, and doing good works as well as caring for her father. However she was often ill and died soon after him in May 1921.
• Daisy Waddington (1864 – 1953) married a Scottish barrister, Duncan McNeil who practised in Shanghai. Vera stayed with them when she visited China. They had three children – their eldest son Neil McNeil was killed in the Great War.
• Edward (Teddy) Waddington (1874 – 1896) joined the Indian army and died soon after at the age of 22, probably of sunstroke.
• Vera Waddington (1876 – 1954) married Mervyn Drake an electrical engineer in 1913. Mervyn’s firm Drake and Gorham specialised in putting electric lighting into large country houses. They had two daughters, Christina and Veronica. Christina became a university lecturer in Italian at Oxford and emeritus fellow of Somerville College. Veronica became an electrical engineer.