Rare Family Photo: “Canadian Navy boy on leave”

I know the photo was taken between 1941 and 1943... but where is my dad taking his leave? Southend-on-the-Sea, England? Irvine, Scotland? Few details in the old black and white will help me answer the question.

And of course, I have another one. Who is dad’s lunch partner? A WAAC? Gracie Purvis of Croydon, a girl dad wrote about in his Navy memoirs?

How would I find out?

[Photo of old photo by G.Harrison]

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