A BRITON last week returned to Bermuda with a collection of photographs taken 75 years ago, for a trip down memory lane.

It was a bitter-sweet experience for Frank Elford, 81, who visited the island with his wife, Sue.

The three-year period he spent on the island with his parents William and Frances and two sisters represented some of their final moments together as a family. On their return to Plymouth, southwest England, in the winter of 1928, Felice, 12, and four-year-old Pat were struck down with pleurisy and pneumonia and died.

"My father worked in the Dockyard at the naval store," he explained. "We spent three wonderful years here and I've always wanted to come back. I wanted to find the house we'd lived in; to visit some of the places in the pictures." It took a series of events for the trip to come to fruition, Mrs. Elford said. In 2002 the couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, Mr. Elford his 80th birthday and Mrs. Elford retired from work.

"Bermuda has always been a sort of dream place to us because it's that much more expensive than other destinations," she said. "But it was a special year. So we said let's celebrate in style, let's go to Bermuda."

His father never returned, but had passed the Bermuda photographs on to Mr. Elford before his death, at age 92.

"I think the sadness was too much for him," he said. "He didn't blame Bermuda (for the deaths) but he knew they'd suffered because they'd moved from this climate to England in winter-time.

"At the last minute, we dug out all these old photographs, took the best ones and stuck them in a modern catalogue so we could find the house I'd lived in and some of the bays (my family) used to visit."

Added his wife: "He's been going around here saying wouldn't it be wonderful if I could just tell mum and dad about it. Had he still been alive, I think reliving the memories would have been tinged with unhappiness.

"The time here wasn't something his father talked about much. But we know he loved it. He had a table which was a slab of cedar ? a branch with three legs on ? and he always had it by his bed with a picture of Felice on it."

The Elfords showed the photographs to everyone they met in hopes of discovering Mr. Elford's childhood home. It wasn't until they began a search in earnest, with taxi driver Nevis Barboza, that the visiting couple struck paydirt.

"I remembered the house," Mr. Elford said. "I remembered it very clearly. Little things like, when they used to go to the beach, my parents often wanted a watermelon. They would send me up the road to a farm and I would go right round the whole field, to find the biggest one. Nice little memories." Added Mrs. Elford: "(Mr. Barboza) opened the book and ? like everyone else we'd shown ? though the photographs were fantastic but he didn't recognise the house." It was along Beacon Hill Road that the couple spotted the house.

"We thought it'd probably been demolished years before; that they'd put a big hotel on the property but when we found it, it was exactly the same apart from a little extension at the side. And it looked lovely," Mr. Elford said.

No one was at home, but Mrs. Elford took pictures of her husband on its steps to preserve the memory of their fantastic search.

"Nevis drove us on to Dockyard and spoke to a lady who said she knew the house," she added. "She said it was Jock Stewart's house and rang his wife and had a quick word with her. So we've decided to send them a copy of the house as it once was, and one with Frank on the steps."

The trip, they agree, is one they will always remember.

"We've enjoyed every moment of it," said Mr. Elford. "We've had some lovely holidays but the people here are so friendly, so nice. We came here and we had no intention of ever coming again and now we'd love to come again."