Sepia Saturday 98: Cart, Coach and Carriage Drivers and the Day Excursion

Reverse of card mount by George Renwick, Burton-on-Trent
Image © and courtesy of Marion Oubhie
Marion Oubhie sent me an image of an unidentified man, possibly from her Showell family, asking if I could estimate a date. It is a standard carte de visite by the Burton-upon-Trent (Staffordshire) studio of George Renwick. From the design of the card mount (see image below) and the negative number, I believe that the photograph was produced around 1883-1885.


Unidentified man with a whip, c. late 1870s/early 1880s
Carte de visite portrait by George Renwick, Burton-on-Trent
Image © and courtesy of Marion Oubhie
The date of the portrait sitting is a little more difficult to estimate, partly because the studio setting and furniture are not visible, but also because my knowledge of the subject of men's clothing fashions is meagre. It is possible that the subject sat for the portrait in the early to mid-1880s, as suggested by the mount, but I think it more likely that it is actually a copy of a slightly earlier photograph, taken perhaps in the mid- to late 1870s. Perhaps the man visited a studio first in the late 1870s, and then ordered a further copy of the portrait half a dozen or so years later.

I was intrigued with the object in the man's right hand, which appears to be a whip and suggests an occupation involving driving a team of horses or draft animals. He was probably a wagon, coach or carriage driver. Marion's Showell ancestors were agricultural or brewer's labourers and farmers, so it seems likely that this man drove a wagon transporting farm produce or supplies for the brewing industry in Burton.


William Mottram and his daughter Sarah, c. late 1860s/early 1870s
Carte de visite portrait by John Clark of Matlock Bath
Image © and courtesy of Linda Snyder
These two images sent to me by Linda Snyder, and taken by Matlock Bath photographer John Clark, portray an occupation which is far less equivocal. William Mottram (c.1813-1879) is shown as an ostler in the 1861 Census, and as a labourer ten years later, but Linda tells me that he was employed as a coachman at the time these portraits were taken.


William Mottram, c. late 1860s/early 1870s
Carte de visite portrait by John Clark of Matlock Bath
Image © and courtesy of Linda Snyder
The clothing certainly gives that impression, with the short ornamented jacket, top hat and leather riding boots. He also has a special leather side flap fastened with buckles to the outer side of his lower right leg, presumably to protect his boots, clothes and calves from the horses harness or something similar. I'm sure there's a name for these, something like leggings or chaps, although neither of those terms seem to quite fit this item.


Reverse of card mounts, John Clark of Matlock Bath
Although clearly taken at the same sitting the card mounts used for these two portraits are different. Together with the studio setting and clothing and hair styles of the young woman, the card designs suggest to me that the portrait was taken in the late 1860s or very early 1870s. Sarah would have turned 18 years old in late 1871 or early 1872.



The last image in this series was sent to me by Ann Bruce, whose great-grandparents James and Ann Smith (nee Gosling), he standing up in the carriage, are about to head off on a day's excursion from Aberystwyth. They lived in Smethwick, near Birmingham so would have travelled by train to the coastal town in north Wales, and stayed in a hotel there before taking the excursion. Unfortunately the driver is mostly hidden by a passenger in the front seat anxious to show his best side to the camera.

From the size of the "leg of mutton" sleeves of the dresses that the two visible women members of the party are wearing, I estimate the photograph to have been taken in the mid-1890s. The number "935" appears to have been written in black ink on the negative, this printing out white on the print. The photographer is likely to have handed out tickets with this number printed to members of the excursion party, and they would no doubt have been able to buy a print upon their return, much as Bailey did in Bournemouth between the wars (Sepia Saturday 92: All Aboard the Bournemouth Queen). It also suggests that the photographer was a regular habitue of excursion parties, and it may well be that there are other such photographs surviving out there. Actually, I'm being somewhat disingenuous, because I have already featured an Aberystwyth excursion photo by Gyde, using an identical card mount, and with the negative number "1139," on Photo-Sleuth three years ago.

I see there is a second, as yet unoccupied, horse drawn carriage behind the first, presumably waiting for the next party to arrive, and I suspect that the large, double storey building in the background was some sort of inn or hotel. There is something behind and to the left of the main carriage, but I can't work out exactly what it is. The printing on it, "THE DE... WATER ... AND G..." is tantalising, but as yet unrevealing.

Thank you very much Marion, Linda and Ann for these excellent examples of occupational photographs, which have slotted nicely into my take on this week's Sepia Saturday theme. I trust you will now head over there to check out what the other slaves to sepia have on offer.

The Crystoleum: Bringing the Art of Photo Colourisation into the Home

Crystoleum sounds like the name of a Victorian fairground attraction, an entrance for which you might expect to see between Strange and Wilson's Aetherscope and the helter skelter. In fact it was another of the many photographic formats which appeared in the 1880s and 1890s and enjoyed a period of popularity which lasted until the Great War.


Edith and Maud Barnes of Ashbourne, c.1883-1885
Cabinet card portrait by Alfred Cox & Co., Nottingham
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
This is a standard cabinet portrait, showing Edith and Maud Barnes dressed for a stroll in the noon day sun, complete with fake boulders and a landscape backdrop to complete the outdoors scene. Although they lived in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, where their father William Barnes was an ironmonger, it appears the family visited Nottingham frequently, because several of their photographic portraits were taken at the studio of Alfred W. Cox & Co. Edith was born in mid-1877, Maud roughly two years later, which places this portrait sitting around 1883-1885.


"Bamboo and Fan" card design by Trapp & Münch, Berlin
Cabinet card by Alfred Cox & Co., Tavistock Chambers, Market Place, Nottingham
Turning over the cabinet card reveals a design printed on the reverse which is very similar to "Bamboo and Fan" from Marion of Paris, described by Vaughan (2003) as introduced in 1884, although this particular example is by Trapp & Münch of Berlin.


The card stock used is of a medium intensity grey colour and has the appearance of having been made from recycled pulp in which the darker fibres are still visible, as shown above, of a type which became more commonly used in the mid-to late 1880s.


Edith and Maud Barnes of Ashbourne, c.1883-1885
Colourised cabinet card portrait by Alfred Cox & Co., Nottingham
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
A second cabinet portrait, taken from the same negative, is likely to have been produced on the same occasion. The card mount is identical - albeit this one has not been trimmed at the base - but it shows signs of having been hand coloured. Although somewhat faded, the yellow in the hair, pink cheeks and dresses, brownish fur and red hat bands and cloth are still visible. The studio did, after all, bill themselves as "Photographers Miniature & Portrait Painters," and had offered "portraits in oil or crayon" from at least the early 1870s.


Edith and Maud Barnes of Ashbourne, c.1883-1885
Crystoleum portrait on glass
Photograph by Alfred Cox & Co., Nottingham
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
The third in this series of similar portraits, while appearing in this image to be somewhat similar, bar the different colouring, is quite another format altogether. Closer examination of the original shows it to have been printed on the back of a slightly convex rectangular piece of fully translucent glass, roughly the same size as the original cabinet card.


Recycled carboard backing of crystoleum portrait
This is backed with a piece of card, apparently reused from an unwanted cardboard-backed print of an engraving, possibly of some European city. (Full marks to the first reader who can tell me what city it is, although it's not likely to have much relevance to this post).


Colourised back of crystoleum portrait
Carefully separating the cardboard from the glass, the owner (not myself) revealed a rather surprising picture, appearing similar to the efforts of a young child in a "paint-by-numbers" book. It was obvious, though, that the colours of this crude picture on the concave side of the glass matched perfectly those visible through the convex side and were, in fact, directly responsible for the not altogether displeasing colourised portrait.


Section of Crystoleum (Jones, 1911)
This portrait is a crystoleum, a format distinct from the crystalotype, an albumen-on-glass process patented by the American John Adams Whipple in 1850, used first for negatives and later for positives. The clearest description I have found of the process involved in producing a crystoleum portrait is by "P.R.S." in Cassell's Cyclopedia of Photography (Jones, 1911), which includes the following brief summary:

A is the front glass, on which a photograph B is pasted face downwards. When dry the photograph is made transparent, and delicate details coloured with ordinary oil colours, but the broad masses of colour are not put on. Another glass D, of the same size and shape as A, as put at the back, but is prevented from touching the photograph by means of strips of paper H, which leave a small space at C. On the back E of the second glass are painted the broad masses of colour. The whole is backed up with a piece of flat cardboard or other backing G, leaving a space F. When viewed from the front the coloyrs are seen through the transparent photograph and the whole has the appearance of a delicately painted picture on glass.

Disassembled crystoleum portrait (Whitman et al, 2007)
Whitman et al (2007) show a disassembled crystoleum portrait (above) and describe the process:

The Crystoleum process was popular from the 1880’s until the 1910’s, and was usually a albumen print face-mounted to convex glass with gum or paste. The paper is then rubbed away with sandpaper until the emulsion layer is exposed. What was left of the paper was made translucent, if needed, with a dry oil, wax or varnish. The fine details were then painted on the back of the photograph, a second piece of convex glass that has been broadly coloured is layered behind the image glass, and the package is bound with a paper backing.

Crystoleum portrait of unidentified young girl, undated
Chromo-Photographie, Jules Delarue, Genève
Image © and courtesy of Nordiska museet/The Nordic Museum
This crystoleum portrait of a young Swiss girl from the Nordic Museum, also usefully disassembled, has the same components, and the web site provides an image showing the back of the front glass with the "fine details" (below).


Crystoleum portrait, back of front glass and front of second glass
The first mention of the crystoleum that I have been able to find in the British newspapers is an advertisement in The Morning Post in June 1882 offering "Lessons given in this new and easily acquired Art of Painting in Oils. Proficiency guaranteed or money will be returned," in Oxford Street, London. This suggests to me that, provided one had an albumen print with which to work and the materials, which could readily be had at the local chemist, no great artistic skills were required to transform the photograph into a work of art.


Crystoleum portrait, back of second glass and front of backing card
Indeed by July 1885 the process was being described in full for readers of The Observer (Anon, 1885). It took another decade for it to reach such far flung parts of the Empire as New Zealand, but in August 1896 residents of Dunedin were regaled with details of how to participate in the delights of the "crystoleum craze" by an enthusiastic contributer to the Otago Witness (Anon, 1896).


Crystoleum portrait, unidentified place and photographer, undated
Image © and courtesy of Länsmuseet Gävleborg/Gävleborg County Museum
As shown by this scene of a country estate, perhaps somewhere in Sweden, the crystoleum process was not limited to portraits, and could be used to very good effect on landscape photographs.

The portrait of Edith and Maud Barnes was taken in the early to mid-1880s, which roughly equates to the period when the crystoleum started to become popular, transforming into something of a do-it-yourself style process. The Barnes crystoleum may of course have been created some time after the original cabinet cards, but it is interesting to speculate whether it was done by the Nottingham studio of Alfred Cox, or perhaps by a member of the Barnes family. Either is conceivable, and we are unlikely to ever know for sure, unless the reused engraving print can be identified as coming from the Barnes household.

If you have a crystoleum in your own collection, I'd be interested in hearing from you and seeing some images, particularly if the subjects are members your own family. Although it appears to have been very popular in late Victorian and Edwardian times, many examples won't have survived and they may not be very common.

References

Anon (1885) All About Crystoleum Painting, Observer, Volume 7, Issue 345, 18 July 1885, Page 4, Courtesy of Early Canterbury Photographers.

Anon (1896) A Lesson in Crystoleum Painting (by Cigarette), Otago Witness, 27 August 1896, p.42, Courtesy of Papers Past.

Anon (2009) Victorian Crystoleums - How they were made, Arthaul.com

Jones, B.E. (1974) Crystoleums, in Cassell's Cyclopedia of Photography, Ayer Publishing (Reprint of the 1911 Edition by Cassell, London), p. 154-155.

Vaughan, Roger (2003) Dating CDV photographs from the designs on the back: The 1880s Page Two, Victorian and Edwardian Photographs - Roger Vaughan Personal Collection.

Whitman, K., Osterman, M. & Chen, J.-J. (2007) The History and Conservation of Glass Supported Photographs, George Eastman House, Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation, p. 36.

Sepia Saturday 97: Geo W Holden, Brother of the more famous Jack

I've long enjoyed the catchy title of Barbara Trapido's book, and this is an excellent opportunity to appropriate it for my own use. The glimpses into the life and career of this elusive photographer that I've unearthed are intriguing, albeit sporadic and far too brief. However, they pale into medocrity beside the bizarre trail of tall tales left by his older brother.

I don't wish to distract either the reader or myself by the adventures of John Watkins Holden (1844-1917), Imperial prestidigitateur - I've taken a small liberty here in calling him "Jack" - so if you wish to read more of him, please visit Old Crone's fascinating account of The Mad Magician. Suffice to say, he was a man of many talents, not the least of which were a keen sense of self-aggrandisement and a tendency to accrue wives and children.


Pennoyre Mansion, near Battle, Brecon, c.1895
© Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery Courtesy of Culturenet Cymru
This account concerns the younger of the two brothers: George Watkins Holden was born on 3 September 1846 at Peckham in Surrey and baptised on 15 November at Christchurch, Camberwell. Although his brother was born two years earlier at Albany Terrace, Claines, Worcestershire, both were illegitimate sons of Emma Holden (1817-1887), and most likely fathered by the Welsh Liberal politician and Lord Lieutenant of Brecon, militia Colonel John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins (1802-1865). Watkins may well have provided for his mistress and her children - the 1851 Census shows them visiting a house in King Street, Laugharn, Carmarthenshire, and Emma is described as an annuitant.


King Street, Laugharn, Carmarthenshire
Image © and courtesy of Google Maps
There doesn't seem to be much chance that George or John ever saw much of either their father or his grand residence, the mansion of Pennoyre near Battle in Brecon, built c.1846-1848. The colonel's wife Sophia Louisa Henrietta née Pocock, daughter of a baronet, remained ensconced there with her two sisters, childless but attended by a retinue of fourteen servants, until her death in May 1851. By this time Lloyd Watkins' attentions had strayed again, and he had fathered further illegitimate children by another woman.

By 1861 they had moved back to London, Emma described herself as a house proprietor and George, then aged 14, was working as a miniature painter. He disappears from view for a decade or so, although a girl he later claimed as his daughter was born at Ashburton, Devon in late 1866.


Unidentified family, possibly in Yorkshire, c.1874-1878
Carte de visite by G.W. Holden of Windsor
Image © and courtesy of John Rivis
Then in December 1871, a report in The Era described a "portrait of [a] Welsh bullock ... from a photograph by Mr. George W. Holden of Portmadoc." This is the first evidence I have found of his photographic career, and a trade directory confirms that he was operating a studio in the High Street, Portmadoc, North Wales in 1874. The engaging carte de visite portrait of a large, but as yet unidentified family, probably taken somewhere in Yorkshire in the mid- to late 1870s, is by George W. Holden. By this time he was based at 12a William Street, Windsor, Berkshire, but clearly travelling widely in search of clients.


St Andrew's Middle Class School, Litchurch, Derby, c.1877
Carte de visite by G.W. Holden of 12a William St, Windsor
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
As early as 1877, when this school photograph including my great-grandfather was taken at St Andrew's Middle Class School in Litchurch, Derby, Holden had identified the niche of scholastic photography as one in which he could specialise.


The card mount is very similar, although not identical, to John Rivis' family group portrait. Judging by the remnants of Holden's output that I have found on the net, schools would be his main clients for at least the next two decades.


Class 1, unidentified group of school girls, c.1881-1883
Carte de visite by "Pen aur" G.W. Holden of London, Paris, Bristol & Swansea
In April 1881 George was in Oxford with his daughter Ada, aged 14, and a young wife Emily Ann, aged 21. It seems unlikely they were there for long because, from the evidence of several carte de visites from the early, mid-, and late 1880s, he appears to have been at least partly based at 42 City Road, Bristol. He operated under the "registered title" of Pen aur, an obvious reference to his father's former estates. The fact that his father died virtually penniless in 1887 was, of course, irrelevant from the point of view of self promotion.


It was during this period that Holden started to advertise his "instantaneous portraits of children with a new patent apparatus." Amongst the numerous extravagant and unverifiable claims made were that he was "under the patronage of several members of the Royal family, colleges, yacht clubs, 'Graphic' &c &c," and that he had studios in London, Paris, Bristol and Swansea. His firm of Holden & Co., described as scholastic group and landscape artists, were able to take "views,groups, machinery &c. ... from C de V to life size, in any part of the Kingdom or France at the shortest notice."

While I have little doubt that he was kept a busy man, I view with some suspicion his claims of such a widely distributed branch studio network, supported by a printing works in Bristol. He stated categorically that he used "no agents," and I suspect that, as was common amongst travelling photographers, he listed the locations that he frequented as "studios." Roger Vaughan, in his extensive list of Bristol Photographers, makes no mention of Holden. On one of the carte de visite mounts displayed on Roger's web site, Holden warns, "As the negatives of this photograph is not kept copies should be ordered without delay," an unusual statement among photographers who normally tried to encourage their customers to make return visits.


Class 1, at Horninglow, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, c.1888-1892
by Geo. W. Holden, Manager of The Elementary Schools Photographing Co. of Leeds & Hull
Image © and courtesy of Sophie Dickerson
An 1887 trade directory suggests that he was operating from "Pennoyre House" in Castle Street, Swansea. Sophie Dickerson sent me this school photo which includes family member Amelia Francis (born c. 1880), probably taken in Horninglow, Burton-on-Trent in the late 1880s or early 1890s. George Holden was by this time probably based in Hull. At least that's where two daughters were born in 1888 and 1889, and card mounts showed him as manager of the The Elementary Schools Photographing Co. at Leeds and Hull, but also visiting an exhausting list of 22 other towns throughout the England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. There is no mention of Burton!


Class 1, at Plymouth, Devon, c.1895
by Geo. W. Holden, Manager of The Elementary Schools Photographing Co. of Leeds & Hull
Image © and courtesy of Stephen Cook
This portrait sent to me of Maud Eva Pike (born 1888) and her class was sent to me by her grandson Stephen Cook, who believes it was probably taken around 1895 in the vicinity of Lipson Vale, Plymouth, Devon, where they lived at the time. Plymouth, for once, is included in the list of places visited by Mr Holden. In the census of early April 1891 his "family" were living in Hull, although he was recorded as a visitor in South Bishop Wearmouth, Durham.


Class 6, Mt Street School (?), unidentified location, c.1896-1898
by Geo. W. Holden, The Home & Colonial Photo Co. of Plymouth & Johannesburg
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The last two examples are from my own collection, purchased on eBay and their provenance is unknown. The first has the locations "Plymouth & Johannesburg S.A." printed on the front and is inscribed in pencil on the reverse, "about 1899 Mt Street Scool [sic]." George Holden married Maud Louise Warnes at Plymouth in early 1894, and a son George Ernest was born at Belfast, Ireland the following year. It seems likely that they returned to the south of England soon after, as I estimate that this class photo is from the late 1890s.


Class 11, Gendros School, Swansea, Glamorgan, c.1900-1904
by Geo. W. Holden, The Home & Colonial Photo Co. of Cardiff & Johannesburg
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
In mid-1898 George Holden married Alice Norman, his previous wife's former "mother's help," 24 years his junior, settling in Cardiff, where they were living at the end of March 1901. This example is a slightly larger format mounted print, and has "Cardiff & Johannesburg S.A." printed on the front. The name of the school at which this portrait was taken is written on a large blackboard held up by the children in the front row: "YSGOL Y GENDROS (MORGANWG)" translates, I believe, to "Gendros School, Glamorgan."


Gendros Primary School, Swansea
Gendros Primary School, in Swansea, built in 1897, is still going and, from the look of the buildings seen over the wall in this Google StreetView, may have many of the original buildings - perhaps even the ones that formed the backdrop to my 110 year-old class photo.

I have pondered on the mention of Johannesburg, South Africa on Holden's later card mounts at some length, without coming to any firm conclusion. It is possible he visited South Africa at some stage, perhaps even intending to cater to the large number of troops heading out there during the Boer War. His brother John claimed, in his fanciful book A Wizard's Wanderings from China to Peru, to have travelled widely, and I think it likely that Johannesburg may also have been the the result of George's lively imagination.

George Watkins Holden continued to operate his photographic business out of the family home at 55 Tudor Street, Cardiff from 1907 until his death in 1921, aged 75, probably the longest settled period of his very busy life. He had five children, at least two of them illegitimate, by three different women, and lived for a time with a fourth. All of his partners were a good deal younger than him. They say that apples don't fall far from the tree.

Many thanks to John Rivis, Sophie Dickerson and Stephen Cook for the use of images from their personal collections.

If you, like me, have a penchant for old school photos, I can thoroughly recommend a visit to this edition of Alan Burnett's Sepia Saturday, where this week's charming image prompt depicts a group of young lads on a break from class, being asked to "Look up" by the photographer. A couple of them did! The rest ... well, they did what all school boys do when asked en masse to pose for a school photograph.

References

Alderman, Mari (2006) Victorian Professional Photographers in Wales, Sept 2006, GENUKI

Anon (2007) The Mad Magician (Old Crone Holden), The Family Tree Forum.

Vaughan, Roger (2003) Bristol Photographers 1852-1972.

Sepia Saturday 96: The Khaki Boxing Squad

For this week's Sepia Saturday photo prompt Alan has has vacillated somewhat between the World Wars, so I thought I'd present my own little World War conundrum.



Among my grandfather's photographs was this snapshot of a group of seven soldiers. Although my grandfather wasn't included, and I didn't recognise any of the others, since the reverse had a piece of paper attached with a number of names inscribed, I thought it would be a relatively simple matter to work out why he had the photo.



The back of the loose paper photographic print has written on the back what appears top be the oldest inscription, in blue ink, "3 Sept. 1943 Yours truly from Johny Basham." Then below it, in different blue ink but in my aunt's handwriting, "FRIENDS OF DAD'S FIRST WORLD WAR," and "FRONT ROW LEFT - DAD" crossed out. This is what introduces the conundrum. The date suggests the photograph was given, probably to my grandfather, by "Johny Basham" during the Second World War, but my aunt's inscription suggests the friends were from the First. My next thought was that perhaps my aunt had simply made a mistake. A cursory examination of the uniforms, however, suggests they are indeed from the earlier of the two world wars.


Private Leslie Payne, CASC, 1916 (left) Major Leslie Payne, Pioneer Corps, 1941 (right)
My grandfather served in the CASC and the Canadian Machine Gun Corps (Canadian Expeditionary Force) during the First World War, but if these soldiers were from the Great War, their cap badges suggest they were not Canadians. He later served as an officer in the Pioneer Corps in England during the Second World War, which would correspond with the date written on the back.



The attached scrap of paper has the following names hand written in pencil and blue ink: Will, Pat O'Keefe, J. Basham, Dick Smith, Jimmy Wilde, Capt Bruce Logan, Jimmy Driscoll. When I started Googling these names, it very quickly became apparent that boxing was the common thread. An article about "Peerless Jim Driscoll" in particular has the following:

The Great War deprived him of a chance of further world champion bouts. He joined the army and belonged to a famous khaki boxing squad that included Bombardier Billy Wells, Pat O’Keefe, Johnny Basham, Dick Smith, Captain Bruce Logan and the ‘Mighty Atom’, Jimmy Wilde.

On the Welsh Warriors web site, devoted to Welsh boxing legends, there is even a reproduction of exactly the same group photograph. The Wellington Evening Post of 8 March 1919 carried a story with the heading, World's Boxers International Luncheon:

A luncheon was given at the Savoy Hotel on 13th December to the boxers of the world's Services who had fought and won and lost in the two days' battle at Albert Hall for the King's trophy ... Side by side were Jimmy Wilde, and Joe Lynch, the American. Lynch on Wednesday was pummelled by Wilde ; he left the ring with a nose all askew. Yesterday Wilde and Lynch delighted to exchange autographs ... an epoch-making event, and one that never will be forgotten. It brought the English-speaking races together to engage in a great national sport."
Captain Bruce Logan, the old amateur boxer, oarsman, and all-round sportsman, the captain of the British Army side, and Sergeant Jim Driscoll, trainer, in a few well-chosen words ... "We of the American team believe Jimmy Wilde to be the greatest boxer the world has ever seen, or will ever see. He is a most wonderful boxer, and it has given us the greatest possible pleasure to see him in the ring."

For those readers who are boxing devotees - I am not one - I've put together some links to biographical details of some of the Khaki Boxing Squad members: Bombardier Billy Wells, Peerless Jim Driscoll and Jimmy Wilde (The Mighty Atom).


Johnny Basham and his manager W. T. Dodman, Wrexham, c. 1920s
Image © Wrexham County Borough Museum and courtesy of Culturenet Cymru
So who was Johnny Basham? Casglu'r Tlysau/Gathering the Jewels, the web site of Culturenet Cymru, provides a potted biography to accompany this excellent image of the young boxer with his manager, taken between the wars.


Sergeant Johnny Basham, c. 1914
Image © Royal Welsh Fusiliers Regimental Museum and courtesy of Culturenet Cymru
John Michael Basham (1890-1947) was born in Newport, Monmouthshire and joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1912, when he was posted to Wrexham, Denbighshire.


Signed photo of Johnnie Basham, c. 1920s
Image © and courtesy of Jo Sports Inc
There are obviously a few autographed photos of Johnny (or Johnnie) Basham still around, including this one that I found on the net, which has a very similar inscription to my grandfather's photo.


John Michael Basham's WW1 Medal Index Card
Image © The National Archives and courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk
The medal index card for Basham confirms that he served with that unit during the Great War, being entitled to both the Victory medal and the British War medal. The biography goes on to say that "He was stationed at the barracks in Wrexham for many years and attained the rank of sergeant." Denbighshire rang a bell for me, as I knew my grandfather was stationed there during the Second World War, so I checked the records that my father and I have put together over the years.


Major Leslie Payne, c.1943
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
In early June 1943 Major Charles Leslie Lionel Payne was the Officer Commanding 315 Pioneer Corps at Newport, Monmouthshire. By early November that year he had been transferred to Pool Park Camp at Efenechtyd, near Ruthin in Denbighshire (now Clwyd), Wales, where he was O.C. of the 88 Company, Pioneer Corps. He remained there throughout that winter and at least until March 1944, probably housed in pre-frabricated wooden huts such as the one pictured above.


View Larger Map
The remains of Pool Park Camp, Efenechtyd
Thomas (2003) records the existence of Pool Park as a Prisoner of War camp, but not much else. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) has a little more:

World War 2 camp for Italian prisoners of war, consisting of several huts to the west of the B5105 road and a sewage works on the opposite side, set within the grounds of Pool Park ... The barracks for personnel serving at the camp was built in Park Road, Ruthin

It also includes grid coordinates for the location. Brett Exton, in his list of POW camps in Great Britain, shows it as Camp 38.


Site of old POW camp, near Ruthin
Image © Eirian Evans and courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Unsurprisingly much of the physical evidence of these camps, which were only ever meant to be temporary, has disappeared. Somewhat belatedly, efforts are now being made by English Heritage to collate and research from what surviving information there is, largely held at The National Archives, and even to preserve some sites.

Malcolm Sanders on his web page about Prisoner of War Mail provides some useful background information on the formation of these camps and thestatus of the Italian prisoner of war.

From October 1942 until January 1943, with the El Alamein campaign, 130,000 mainly Italian and some German POWs, were sent to England ... From September 1943, with the fall of the fascists in Italy, the status of Italian POWs changed. In May 1944, Italian POWs were asked if they wished to work in the UK as 'cooperators'. Those refusing were held in 'non-cooperator' camps; others were referred to as members of Italian Labour Battalions, rather than as POWs.

Major Payne (3rd from left) with Italian POWs and RC clergyman
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
This group photo, which regular readers will recognise as having been the subject of a photo quiz (Sepia Saturday 80), shows my grandfather with four Italian POWs and an older man who I presume is a Roman Catholic priest. It may have been taken at Pool Camp during the winter of 1943/1944 - the trees certainly look bare enough for that time of year. However, by August 1944 Major Payne was O.C. of 584 Italian Working Company at Carfax Estate (Camp 584), near Tongham in Hampshire, so it may have been taken there the following winter. He remained in charge of that company until October 1945, although they moved to Puckridge Camp, near Aldershot, Hampshire in spring or early summer.

Getting back to the original signed photograph of the Khaki Boxing Squad, the date of 3 September 1943 corresponds to when he was based at Pool Park, near Ruthin, which in turn is not far from Wrexham. I think it quite likely that my grandfather either worked with or met Johnny Basham during his spell in North Wales. I've not been able to dig up any details of the former boxer's Second World War service, but since he was of a similar age to my grandfather, it's unlikely that he would have been sent abroad.


Image © fleamarketinsiders and courtesy of Flickr
As an epilogue to this story, when I was a young lad I was given a pair of child's boxing gloves which had belonged to my father as a boy. I tried them on a few times, but never did much more than tap the wall to try them out. Unfortunately, I don't recall what my father said about who had given them to him or why (he was probably an even more unlikely boxer than I am). I pondered on whether it was likely that Mr Basham had been any kind of influence on my grandfather's choice of present, but by the time he met Johnny, my Dad was 15 years old, and his hands would have been far too large for the gloves that I recall.

Now head over to Sepia Saturday, where you'll find a wealth of alternative takes on this week's theme.

References

Anon (1919) World's Boxers International Luncheon, Evening Post (Wellington New Zealand), 8 March 1919, p10.

Exton, Brett (nd) Location of POW Camps in Great Britain, Island Farm Prisoner of War Camp: 198 / Special Camp: XI, Bridgend, South Wales.

Malaws, B.A. (2006) Pool Park Prisoner of War Camp, Efenechtyd, Ruthin, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)

Sanders, Malcolm (nd) Prisoner of War Mail and POW Camps in UK, King George VI - Great Britain (Postal History).

Thomas, R.J.C. (2003) Prisoner of War Camps (1939-1948), English Heritage.

Zoncada, Pietro (Sgte.) (1944) Letter to "Maggiore Payne," The O.C., 584 Italian Working Company, Carfax Estate, 14 August 1944, Collection of Brett Payne.

Peerless Jim Driscoll, the most famous son of Newtown, Ireland, Wales and Europe: Poems, History and Language

Welsh Warriors, by Johnnyowen.com

Patrick Colbert (c1845-1901) of Bunmahon & Whiterigg

A few days ago I discussed a photographic portrait coloured in oils of a middle-aged man. Diana Burns has sent me the rather harrowing tale from her husband's family history and, rather than summarise it, I've decided to present it here in full, in her words and partly illustrated with some of her own photographs.


Mahon River and Bunmahon, Co. Waterford, 2006
Image © Copyright Hector Davie and courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Bunmahon is a quiet village in Co. Waterford, Ireland, lying in an area still called the Copper Coast. Copper was discovered there in the 1820s, transforming the former holiday resort into a major industrial region for much of the nineteenth century. However, a series of crises – deterioration in the quality of the ore and its increasing inaccessibility, famine, transatlantic migration and strikes – led to the decline and ultimate closure of the mine in 1877.


Patrick Colbert (c1845-1901) of Bunmahon & Whiterigg
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
Against this backdrop were two families, the Colberts and the Hurleys. Patrick Colbert was born to James Colbert, foreman at the mine, and his wife, Catherine Flynn, around 1854. Mary Hurley was born to Timothy Hurley, the mine’s paymaster, and his wife, Julia O’Sullivan, around 1856. Patrick and Mary married in 1875 and their first child, Bridget Mary, was born in Bunmahon in 1877.


Tankardstown Mine, Bunmahon, Co. Waterford, 2007
Image © Copyright Philip Halling and courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The conditions in Bunmahon following the mine closure had become appalling. At the 1877 half year AGM of the Mining Company of Ireland, it was reported, “It was as if an angel of death had swept over Bunmahon… [The mining area is] now deserted and the misery and wretchedness of the people who survived painful almost beyond description… They are in a state of destitution to amount almost to starvation.”

The Colberts were one of the last families to leave, along with the Wheatley family whose eldest son, John, went on to become Minister for Health in the first Labour Government in 1924. Both families headed for industrial Lanarkshire in Scotland. Although the reason behind their choice of destination is not clear, it is likely that recruiting agents for the Scottish coal and ironstone companies had come over to Ireland.


The Road to Whiterigg, January 2010
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
The Colberts moved into Airdriehill Square, Whiterigg, a custom-built village erected in 1874 by United Collieries Ltd. 49 single storey, brick houses were laid out in rows to form a square. The walls were damp, there were no sinks in the homes and sanitation took the form of open privy middens in front of the rows. The Colberts had seven more children. Their only son, James, died aged seven after a building had collapsed on his leg and necrosis developed.


Whiterigg Moorland, January 2010
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
The remaining children grew to adulthood, and Bridget Mary married William Burns, my husband’s grandfather. William reportedly served in the Black Watch. He was a Pioneer Socialist and ambivalent about WW1. In 1915, he obtained compassionate leave to go the funeral of Keir Hardie where he was an honorary pall-bearer. When he returned, his colonel sent for him and said that “Keir Hardie was a Socialist who should have been shot, and we won’t miss you!” Reputedly, this reached Ramsay McDonald, who was to become the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924. McDonald was a pacifist in WW1 and the Government was anxious to keep the Labour Party and the British trade union movement onside during the war. He intervened, with the result that William was shipped out to India instead of to the Western Front and almost certain death. William went on to become John Wheatley’s election agent in Lanarkshire East in the 1920s.


Signpost, Whiterigg, January 2010
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
In the spring of 1901, two of the seven girls were bringing in a wage. The family also had a boarder, in a house that probably had three rooms at the most. On 29 December 1901, Patrick Colbert died aged 47 from acute pneumonia. The conditions under which he worked almost certainly led to his death - damp, poor ventilation and the constant inhalation of coal dust. I cannot imagine how his widow managed to raise seven children aged between three and eighteen, but I have found no evidence of her applying for poor relief.


St David's School, Whiterigg, September 2009
Image © and courtesy of Diana Burns
Little remains of Whiterigg now, at least on the surface. All the houses have long been cleared from the site. Only the old school remains. I visited the area last February, a very unforgiving time of the year to view a lost village, and was left with a deep impression of the bleakness of the landscape and the bitterly cold wind blowing across the deserted moorland.

References

Cowman, Des (2006) The Making and Breaking of a Mining Community: The Copper Coast, County Waterford 1825-1875+, Grannagh, Waterford: GK Print.

Lucas, H., Devlin, E. & Reilly, J. (2001) The Lost Villages: Whiterigg, Darngavil, Arden, Ballochney, Craigmauchen, Meikle Drumgray, North Standrigg, South Standrigg, self publ., Glasgow: Craig & Stewart Printers Ltd.