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. Here are the earliest photos we have of him (Summer 1927)
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.
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 in Harland & Wolff, Belfast, later to serve in World War 2 as an armed merchant cruise and then a troop ship, finally being withdrawn from service in 1953 and crapped in 1954.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.
