After their wedding at Meerut in February 1926, Cyril and Elaine’s first child, a son, was born on 9th November 1926. They named him after his two grandfathers: George Ralph Hooke. Below is the first photo of George with his grandmother, Rosa Oakden in Meerut, India (December 1926) and the earliest photos of him with his mum. (Summer 1927)
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When Cyril’s mother, George’s grandmother, Ellen Hooke was seriously ill at home in London during 1928 correspondence indicates that the family hoped that Cyril, Elaine and George would return to England in 1928/29 in time for Ellen to see her new grandson. Sadly that did not happen before Ellen died on 21st August in Richmond aged ~72.
The family did return to England in early 1929. Unfortunately, Elaine’s diary for 1929 is missing so we can’t track the family’s movements precisely but her last entry on 31 Dec 1928 refer to them packing. Immigration logs don’t provide the information about when the Hooke family arrived in England but their photo album has pictures of George in England in April 1929 at Barnes, London, with his bereaved grandfather, George Archer Hooke. 
Elaine was now expecting her second child. On 17th September 1929 in Barnes, England where her parents, Sir Ralph and Lady Oakden lived, she gave birth to a brother for George: John Oakden Hooke. John was not a family name but of course Oakden was Elaine’s surname and a name with a considerable heritage.
After what appears from the photographs to be a very happy summer the young family returned to India in 1930 sailing on the “Mooltan” on Friday 7th March. RMS Mooltan was a P&O mail ship and ocean liner built and launched in 1923 from Harland & Wolff, Belfast. She was later to serve in World War 2 as an armed merchant cruise and then a troop ship, finally being withdrawn from service in 1953 and scrapped in 1954.
The Hookes were seen off at Tilbury docks by George Archer Hooke, Frances and Trixie. They landed in Bombay 3 weeks later on 28th March at 7.30am and left for Ranikhet that afternoon.
It would seem from Granny Elaine's diary and the family photograph albums that life in India was quite idyllic. Both Cyril and Elaine played a lot of tennis, singles and mixed doubles in tournaments for which small silver trophies were awarded. They must have been pretty good as quite a collection of these trophies survived. To view these trophies and find out more about what life in India was like for Cyril and Elaine click on the link below.
Cyril & Elaine Hooke - Life in India (1926-1947)
CINE FILM
The Hookes followed in the footsteps od Elaine's parent in buying a cine camera. Here are some of their early films of George and John taken in India and in England.
George & John with their mother and Ayah in Meerut, India in 1931. (25secs)
George & John, Bognor Beach, Flanshaw, Isle of Wight, submarine, cricket 1933 (6mins)
Short extract from above: George & John playing catch and football with their parents at Flanshaw near Bognor 1933 (2mins)
Cyril and his car in Burma 1933 (30secs)
George, John and cousins playing in the New Forest 1934 (5mins)
Here are a couple of photos of the young family in Rhaniket. Below is a set of photos of George & John from 1930 to 1935, mostly taken in England.
Very soon it became clear that the two boys needed to be educated in England. Cyril continued to serve in the Army in India while Elaine set sail from Bombay ........ to be continued