A MYSTERY for readers this week: what sort of car is featured in this picture, taken between 1934 and 1936, in floodwater on the causeway at Staverton, near Trowbridge?

Does anyone recognise the make and model – can they even put names to the driver and passenger? The registration number of the car is partially obscured by the floodwater it is driving through, but seems to read ?KL5 279.

The picture was taken by William Geoffrey Gale, a keen photographer, and is part of an album of his work his daughter Alex Anderson treasures – although several of them hold mysteries like this one.

The registration number of the car is partially obscured by the floodwater it is driving through, but seems to read ?KL5 279.

“We’d be so pleased to find out what sort of car it is, it’s puzzled us for ages,” said Mrs Anderson, who now lives in Westwood.

She is at a loss to know why her father was in Staverton at that period, although as there are many pictures in the album of local views she thinks he may have had a family connection with the area.

After the Second World War, when the trained pharmacist worked setting up field hospitals for the Army, during which time he met and married her mother Gwenfra Williams, the couple settled in Swindon. They then moved to Wootton Bassett, where she and her sister Catherine grew up and Mr Gale ran a pharmacists shop in two different places in the town.

“We did a lot of walking, over the downs towards Marlborough, and he always had two cameras with him and would stop as we went along to take pictures,” she said.

Mr Gale died in 1985, aged 71. His family, including Mrs Anderson’s sister, now Catherine Parsons, who lives in Bathford, have become fascinated by the collection of images he left. They know he had pictures published in books about Wiltshire, and that he used the pen-name Barnaby – but do not know why.

“There are gaps in our knowledge of the family history, and we’d love to know more about some of the pictures he took,” Mrs Anderson said. “For example, one shows a dog who was clearly a treasured pet but we never knew he existed.”

If anyone can help Mrs Anderson with the make of the car, or knows the driver, she can be contacted on 07501 424744 or at thornton40uk@yahoo.co.uk