AN OLD photograph of a tram struggling along the road at Boscombe after a blizzard in 1908 tells a poignant story. It was taken the day after a snowstorm that caused a disaster in the Solent claiming 27 lives.

That snowstorm resulted in a liner, St Paul, ramming a cruiser, HMS Gladiator, with the huge cost in lives.

For a week beforehand Bournemouth and South Hampshire had been in the grip of a wintry spell.

Stanley Scott, 93, of Boscombe, says there had been an earlier great snowstorm on Easter Sunday, April 19, of that year. It was so severe it was mentioned in a book, History of Bournemouth Weather.

"The significance of the photograph of the tram is obviously the severe weather," said Stanley, who is 94 this month. But it has an additional importance in his own family history.

He believes he may even have been a passenger on that very tram which, he thinks, could have been travelling to Bournemouth West station on that day, April 25, 1908.

"I was three weeks old then and my parents took me to Somerset that Easter to visit my maternal grandparents," he said.

The date is fixed in his memory because his shawl was pinned with his father's gold tie pin and some time during the weekend it was lost.

"I believe it was a wedding present," he said.

Every time it snowed after that, his mother repeated the story.

Stanley was born in the house his father built, No. 10 Scotter Road, and baptised in the Methodist Church, Seabourne Road, which is now a library.

He became a teacher, first at a Birmingham school for six years, before returning to teach at Stourfield Junior School in 1934.

He became deputy headmaster of Summerbee Junior School, then headmaster at Pokesdown Junior School, Livingstone Road, until he retired.

About four years ago Stanley discovered a print of the original photograph of the tram in a shop in Christchurch.

He bought and framed the print which shows more detail than the postcard.

Stanley says the pillar which you can see on the picture of the tram (centre right) was in the middle of the road and supported the tram lines.

Coming up the hill to the right of the tram is a horse and cart and centre, above the trees, can be seen the flag over the Linden Hall Hotel, now the David Lloyd Leisure Club.

The print of the snow-covered street had been hand-dated "Boscombe April 25/08" and on it was also written "Gordelpus!"

That picture of a tram has an added poignancy for it was taken only six days before another disaster occurred, this time in Bournemouth.

On May 1, 1908, an electric tramcar careered out of control and shot off its rails at a bend in Avenue Road, Bournemouth, plunging down a steep wooded slope into a garden.

Seven people lost their lives and many more were injured.