Sepia Saturday 283: Laying New Rails at Derby

Sepia Saturday's theme image this week was taken in the early 1890s shows a number of railway workers standing at the entrance to a large tunnel in County Mayo, Ireland. Some years ago I published a scanned and digitally retouched image of a roughly trimmed cabinet card from my collection which I entitled, "A group of railway navvies from Sheffield, Yorkshire."

Thanks to information later received from fellow photohistorian Simon Robinson, I discovered that the workers were more likely to be excavating water reservoirs rather than railway cuttings, but that hasn't prevented it becoming the most popular page on Photo-Sleuth, and "navvies" being the most common search term for visitors arriving via Google. If you type "railway navvies" into Google's image search, it should be in the top few images. According to Google Analytics tools, in the seven years since it was published it has received 1839 hits, a steady stream of visitors averaging 5 per week. I have no idea why, except that it is a great picture. It's also one of my most pilfered images, having been reposted without attribution on a multitude of other sites including, I was surprised to learn, the web site of the Smithsonian Magazine (who should know better).


Railway workers
Print (97 x 141 mm) mounted on thick card
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Today I have a similar image of railway workers, likewise scanned from a roughly trimmed albumen print mounted on thick card. Sadly it's a little worse for wear, the photographic emulsion being considerably faded, the surface of the print showing a good deal of ly spotting, and having a large tear almost completely across the upper right hand quarter. the photograph shows a group of five railway workers standing across several sets of railway tracks, with several buildings visible in the background, including a possible railway station and platform at the far right. Judging from the clothing and headgear of the men, I suspect that it was taken in the late 1880s or 1890s, at roughly the same time as the theme image, and perhaps a decade or so earlier than my other navvies photo.


Inscription: Laying New Rails at Derby(?)
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The intriguing thing about this photo is the caption written in black (or perhaps very dark blue) ink on the reverse. It's rather difficult to decipher but it may read, "Laying new rails at Derby" (or possibly Darley), and that is how it was advertised when I purchased it off eBay not long ago. If any readers can shed light on where the photograph might have been taken, I'd be very grateful to hear from you, either by comment below or via email.

Sepia Saturday 282: Derbyshire Photographers: John Mellor Hampson

Instead of going with the Sepia Saturday image theme this week, I'm continuing my intermittent series of posts featuring Derbyshire photographers. Since 2002 I've been compiling a historical database of studio and portrait photographers operating in the English county of Derbyshire, with much of the accumulated data, research material and images presented online: Derbyshire Photographers & Photographic Studios.

The information about photographers and studios comes largely from trade directories, census records, historical newspapers, genealogical databases and a variety of other sources. Examples of portriats by these photographers come partly from my own collection, but mostly by kind contribution from several hundred contributers around the world who have been in touch with me since the web site was launched in 2002. The database now includes over 500 separate photographers, with detailed profiles on over a third of them, but due to other projects competing for my time and interest - such as Photo-Sleuth - updates to the web site have stalled in recent years. My research, database compilation and collection of relevant images continues, however, and I still welcome further contributions.


Portrait of unidentified child, taken c.1880-1885
Carte de visite by John M. Hampson of No. 9 Birch View, Birch Vale
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
Although most of the documentary and archival sources where records of photographers might be found hve now been extensively scoured, I still come across the occasional name that is completely new to me, mostly from the discovery of portraits. This, a typical example, is a carte de visite portrait that I came across on eBay recently and purchased for my collection. Like most photos that are sold on eBay, it is not annotated, and has no documentation of provenance, so I have no idea who the subject was. It appears to be a child - possibly a girl, although the short hair makes me wonder a little - in a velvet dress with abundant ornamentation in the form of knotted braid. The chair on which she is sitting is covered with a plaid blanket, while another chair to her right has a floral cloth covering.


Reverse of card mount
by photographer John M. Hampson of Birch Vale
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
The reverse of the card mount has a design which Roger Vaughan calls the Early Large Letter design, used in the late 1870s and early 1880s. I suggest this particular example is from the early to mid-1880s.

John Mellor Hampson was born on 3 February 1846 at New Mills, Derbyshire, son of a wheelwright James Hampson and his wife Martha. By the age of 15, he had already left school and was working as a millwright in nearby Hayfield. He married Maria Bates Randle at Hayfield on 11 May 1870; she had been working as a cotton doubler in one of the local mills. The following year, John was a foreman/millwright at a print works in Hayfield, presumably associated with the cotton mill industry. The censuses of 3 April 1881 and 5 April 1891 both found him living at number 9, Birch View in the small village of Birch Vale, near Hayfield, describing himself as a millwright. By 1901 he and his wife had moved to Hayfield Road, Hayfield, and then by 1911 to Macclesfield Road, Staley Bridge (across the border in Cheshire), but he was still working as a millwright. He died at Whaley Bridge on 13 March 1913, aged 67, and was buried at Hayfield two days later.

I've found no evidence in the usual documentary records for John M. Hampson working as a photographic artist, although the Bulmer trade directory for 1895 lists him as a coal merchant. However censuses were only taken every ten years, while trade directories provide a fragmentary record at best, and it appears that he must have briefly tried his hand as a photographer during the late 1870s or early 1880s.

Sepia Saturday 170: The Gamekeeper

I trust that Sepia Saturday readers will forgive my contribution this week having little in common with the photo prompt, except in the sense of two men loitering around a doorway. Actually there's not even a doorway in my photograph, although the sharp-eyed will note that there used to be one.

This cabinet portrait is the first photograph in an album given to me several years ago by Jack Armstrong, which is the subject of an ongoing (albeit not very recent) series of Photo-Sleuth articles devoted to documenting, researching and conserving old photograph albums:

• Researching an album from Cleveland, Ohio - Introduction
• Researching an album: (1) A digital photographic and scanned record
• Researching an album: (2) Documenting the album and photographs

Unidentified men outside house
Cabinet card by unknown photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne (Jack Armstrong Album)
The cabinet mount is glossy green card with no printed indication of the photographer or the location, which is unfortunate. Based on a geographical analysis conducted of the contents of the album - due to appear as the next article in the series mentioned above, in due course - and careful scrutiny of the building's brickwork style by fellow Sepian Nigel Aspdin, it seems likely that it was taken somewhere in the English Midlands, probably in north-east Staffordshire or southern Derbyshire.


Both men stand with their left hands on their hips and are wearing trousers, jacket, waistcoat and flat caps, superficially very similar, but on closer examination a number of differences are apparent setting them well apart. On the left, the slightly older, moustachioed man has a nicely cut jacket with matching waistcoat, a cravate and what appears to be a pair of check Tweed trousers (perhaps even the Prince of Wales check, commissioned first by Edward VII). His shoes are highly polished, his flat cap (possibly also made of Tweed) sits at a slight angle and he carries a cane in his right hand.


The more hirsute man on the right, however, has a thicker jacket and waistcoat to protect from him from the elements, and with plenty of pockets, well-worn, faded and creased working trousers tucked into calf-length gaiters, which in turn cover the upper parts of a pair of clean, but slightly duller working boots with thick soles. His flat cap, like the rest of his clothes, is unpatterned and rather utitlitarian, covering his hair and with the peak horizontally set above his eyes. His only concession to flair is a spotted cravate, just visible beneath a roughly trimmed beard.


Gamekeepers and dogs at Wemmergill, undated, probably c1900s
Image © Freda Longstaff and courtesy of Lunedale Heritage Image Archive
It occurred to me that the man on the left was probably a landowner, while the other, probably his employee, is most likely a gamekeeper. A dog - possibly a spaniel, although I'm no expert on breeds - the one accessory that a gamekeeper could not do without, sits patiently at his feet. Searching for images of Victorian and Edwardian gamekeepers on the net produced a brace of similar examples, including the group above, complete with a very similar breed of dog, but I remembered that I have another in my collection of images contributed to the archive for Derbyshire Photographers.


Unidentified gamekeeper
Carte de visite by Thomas Roberts of Albert Street, Derby
Image © and courtesy of John Bradley
This full length portrait from the early 1860s is almost certainly of a gamekeeper with his shotgun, sadly without a spaniel, but wearing similar working clothing except for a flat cap, replaced by a fairly low-crowned, practical top hat. His gaiters are almost identical to those worn by our putative gamekeeper in the first image. Unfortunately the subject this one is likewise not identified, leaving us to assume that he was employed on an estate somewhere near Derby.

Thomas Roberts, Derby's first resident photographer, operated studios in Victoria Street, Oakes' Yard, St James' Lane and Albert Street from 1843 intermittently until 1876. His studio was situated in Albert Street in the latter part of this period, from c.1862 onwards, giving us an earliest date for the portrait.


Unidentified subject with gun and dog, c.1865-1867
Carte de visite by Disdéri & Co, 70-72 Brook Street, Hanover Square W.
Finally I include an image that I've had on file for a while, having found it on eBay (although it was too pricey for me to consider purchasing). The carte de visite was produced by, and presumably taken at, the Westminster branch studio of renowned photographer Disdéri, who operated from this particular address (70,71,72 Brook Street) for a relatively short period of three years, providing a narrow date range for the portrait. Disdéri is credited with the introduction, in 1854, and later popularisation of the carte de visite format.

The young man pictured sitting rather unceremoniously on an what appears to be an upturned tub or half-barrel has all the trappings of a gamekeeper, including stout shoes, shoulder patches, a double-barrelled shotgun and a dutiful dog at his feet.


H.R.H. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
(Left) Detail from portrait by Abdullah Freres, Constantinople, c1868
(Right) Carte de visite portrait by Sergei Levitsky, c1870
Images © The Royal Collection and The Di Rocco Wieler Private Collection
His face looked to me rather familiar, and I wondered if he was a young Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII. Certainly he looks very similar to these two portraits of him taken in the late 1860s.


Carte de visite portraits of H.R.H. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh
by (Top) James Russell & Sons, Chichester, 1866 (Lower left) S.B. Barnard, Cape Town, August 1867 (Lower right) Johnstone, O'Shannessy & Co., Melbourne, 1867-1868
Images © and courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery
However, while searching for images of the young Prince in the right time frame (1865-1867) I came across several of his younger brother, Prince Alfred, from May 1866 the Duke of Edinburgh and later the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During the period in question he was serving as a Captain in the Royal Navy, in command of the frigate HMS Galatea, and sailed on a voyage around the world from January 1867 until June 1871, interrupted by a trip back to England after a failed assassination attempt in Sydney, Australia.

The National Portrait Gallery has a number of portraits of Prince Alfred, including the four above taken in various studios from 1866 to 1868. It is these portraits that have convinced me that the Disderi CDV is indeed of Prince Alfred, not really masquerading as a gamekeeper, but ready to go out for a spot of pheasant shooting.

To end this addition to my intermittent series of Victorian portraits depicting occupations, I'll leave you with a description of an encounter with a gamekeeper and his dog.

She was watching a brown spaniel that had run out of a side-path, and was looking towards them with a lifted nose, making a soft fluffy bark. A man with a gun strode swiftly, softly out after the dog, facing their way as if about to attack them; then stopped instead, saluted, and was turning downhill. It was only the new game-keeper, but he had frightened Connie, he seemed to emerge with such a swift menace ... He was a man in dark green velveteens and gaiters ... the old style, with a red face and red moustache and distant eyes. He was going quickly downhill. 'Mellors!' called Clifford.

D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

References

Archival Gamekeepers, from Archival Clothing.

Andre Adolphe Eugene Disderi (1819-1889), from the photoLondon database.

Hirsch, Robert (2009) The Carte de Visite and the Photo Album (Chapter 4.5), in Seizing the Light: A Social History of Photography, Second edition, McGraw-Hill, reproduced on Luminous Lint.

Biography of and Photographs by Disdéri on Luminous Lint.

Sepia Saturday 127: Everyday life in Victorian photos

I haven't got off to a very good start with my return to Sepia Saturday, having missed last week's edition, but hopefully I'll manage to submit this week's in time. Alan's choice of image prompt depicts a vibrant, busy market scene at Ballybricken Green in Waterford. The photograph was taken by A.H. Poole in 1910, and is full of people, animals and character.


My own contributions this week are a carte de visite and two other mounted photos of similar size, but trimmed. All three are from an album that I purchased a few years ago on eBay. The carte de visite shows a man in working clothes, sturdy leather shoes and peaked cap in the act of filling a metal bucket with water from what appears to be a hand pump encased in wood, set against a brick wall. The pump looks to be fairly new - at least the casing's been freshly painted. The man's clothing is obviously not his Sunday best, and the brick wall looks somewhat decrepit.

With no photographer's details or an inscription to identify the subject, it's a little difficult to date, but I estimate it was probably taken in the late 1890s or early 1900s, a decade or so prior to Waterford market scene. I've chosen it for today's post because, even if posed, it represents something not often seen in family photos from this period, an accurate, natural and matter of fact depiction of everyday life.


The other two photographs have been trimmed to roughly CDV size, presumably to fit in the album slots. One shows a young man, again in trousers, shirtsleeves, waistcoat, leather shoes and flat cap, standing outside a stable, with a horse poking its head out. The walls of the very high-ceilinged stable look in substantially better trim than the wall seen in the first photo. There is a water trough made from a wooden barrel at lower left, with a tap for refilling it, and a cast iron grating - presumably a drain cover - can be seen at lower right.

Again there are no identifying marks to indicate the location or the name of either the photographer, the young man - or the horse, for that matter.


The third photograph is a silver gelatin print mounted on grey card with a slight fabric "grain" on the reverse, and was possibly taken some years later, although it is difficult to be more specific. It depicts a man, perhaps middle-aged, with a rather splendid white moustache, apparently interrupted while gathering in the hay. He is dressed, once again, in working clothes, but this time wearing a wide-brimmed fedora-style felt hat and carring a two-tined pitchfork.


The man stands in a field bordered by stone walls, and in the background a rural scene and collection of houses can be seen.


At the time I purchased the album, the only clue to its contents was an inscription in the front. There was not a single inscription on the photos themselves, or any annotations on the album pages. However, a good proportion of the portraits in the album were by Derbyshire studio photographers - indeed, that is what attracted me to the album in the first place.

Allestree
August 25th 1894
In Rememberance of past Kindness,
With Best Wishes from
Henry Mitchell

I had little success in tracing Henry Mitchell - it was just too common a name to be sure I had the right one. However, in February 2007 I posted images of several of the portraits by Derbyshire studios in the respective profiles on my Derbyshire photographers web site, including a CDV and cabinet card by W.N. Statham of Matlock Bridge. Some time later, I was very excited to hear from Marilyn McMillan and Betty Jane Rotteau, from Ontario and British Columbia respectively, who had identified some of the individuals in these portraits.


Henry and Ann Jane Statham
Image © & courtesy of Marilyn McMillan
Actually, an enlarged, coloured and framed version of one of the portraits, depicting her great-grandparents Henry and Ann Jane Statham, hangs on the wall of Marilyn's home, so there could be no doubt whatsoever about the identification.


Henry and Ann Jane Statham
I wrote an article about this exciting discovery here on Photo-Sleuth in February 2008. Apart from the information sent to me by Marilyn, I had done some of my own research into the family, because it turned out that not only were they closely related to the photographer W.N. Statham, but there was also a distant connection with my own family - one of the Statham photographers married my grandfather's sister-in-law, Jessie Louisa Hogg. However, I still had been unable to discover any links to a "Henry Mitchell."


Statham family of Matlock
Click image for a larger version
Then, in January last year (2011) Betty Jane Rotteau emailed me with details of a break through:

Just to give you a bit of our Statham ancestry to help make sense of this. Isaac Statham married Sarah Carline and they had 6 children who lived to adulthood. Isaac married in 1873, Henry was our gr-grandfather who you know about, Louisa and Caroline never married but lived together their whole lives, William was with Louisa & Caroline until 1911. I am still looking for a marriage and/or death for him. Then there was Clarissa. She married Henry Mitchell in 1882 and they had 3 children. I think this is the Henry who wrote the above message. From what I can figure Allestree was near Derby at that time, whether this is where Henry & Clarissa were living I don't know for sure. During the 1891 and 1901 census Henry, Clarissa and family were living in Derby area, Quarn Street and Elm Street. Their children's birth were all registered in Derby.

View Larger Map
Both Quarn Street and Elms Street are just off Kedleston Road, in a north-western suburb of Derby. In fact, both addresses are now shown as part of the same cul-de-sac, the road system having been modified somewhat over the last century or so. It is not too far from present day Allestree, which nowadays is really just another suburb of Greater Derby, although separated from it by the A38 motorway.


Masson Farm, near Matlock, Derbyshire
from Ordnance Survey One-Inch Map, Buxton and Matlock, 1947
My immediate thought was that Henry Mitchell could have been giving the album to his parents-in-law, but of course Sarah Statham was dead by that time. Isaac Statham died at Masson Farm, Matlock on 13 November 1894, less than three months after the inscription was made, and by 1901 the three remaining single children were all living at Masson Farm. Betty had an idea:

This just raises more questions. I wonder who Henry was referring to when he wrote his message. Could it have been a message to his sister-in-laws, Louisa and Caroline who took care of their father until he passed away in November, 1894.

I think it's quite possible that Henry gave the album to either Isaac Statham senior or Caroline and Louise, but most likely to his sisters-in-law. When Caroline died in 1931, the executors of her will were Frederick Lewis Mitchell and Edward Mitchell, the two sons of Henry and Clarissa. It seems very likely that either they or their sister Clarissa Zenobia, by then married to Thomas Hayes, inherited the album, perhaps along with other family effects.

That is, of course, just a wild theory. However, it would explain how photographs from Loughborough and Leicester found their way into the album, since I note that in the census records Henry Mitchell states that he was born in Loughborough. Most of the photographs are from Matlock, Matlock Bath, Chesterfield and Derby. It is important to note that there are many portraits which were taken well before the album was purchased and inscribed in 1894, so they must have been inserted afterwards. It is tempting to theorise that many of the older Derbyshire portraits could be of other members of the Statham family.


View from Salter's Lane, Masson Farm, near Matlock
Image © and courtesy of Google Earth Streetview
I am also intrigued by the possibility that the portraits of the man by the water pump, the horse hand, and the haymaker could all have been taken at or near Masson Farm. It's possible that all three may be the same man, Henry Mitchell's brother-in-law William Statham (1864-1944).


William Nathan Statham (1863-1940)
Image © and courtesy of Chris Statham
In May last year Chris Statham, grandson and great-grandson respectively of photographers Percival "Percy" Joseph Statham (1894-1977) and William Nathan Statham (1863-1940), was in touch with me. Subsequent emails have revealed that he has in his possession the family photo album of Abanathan "Nathan" Daffin Statham (1823-1874). Among other interesting items of information about W.N. Statham's career, Chris also sent this imposing portrait of the photographer in his Freemason's regalia. I am most intrigued, and the next step will be to ascertain whether any of the people who appear in the "Mitchell/Allestree" album also appear in the "Abanathan" album. In particular, my primary task will be to identify the man/men in the three farm portraits.

The other contributions for Sepia Saturday this week may not have chosen a similar theme to mine, but you can sure they will be well worth a visit.

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.

Sepia Saturday 95: Working Women at Rolls-Royce in the Great War

Alan Burnett's chosen image for Sepia Saturday this week celebrates the election of Denmark's first woman prime minister. The image, from the Royal Library of Denmark's Flickr Commons Collection, appears to be a lithographed poster showing a group of women from the Socialdemokratiet (Social Democratic Party) marching with banners. I'm going to follow this with the theme of women taking on roles previously reserved for men. I have written before about women who worked in the Land Army during the Great War, but a photo sent to me recently from the studio of W.W. Winter portrays a group of women who took on a very different set of tasks while their menfolk were away fighting.


Group of women workers with a male "supervisor" from Rolls-Royce, Derby, c.1916-1917
Large format mounted print by W.W. Winter, Midland Road, Derby
Image © and courtesy of Chris Elmore
This image was sent to me by Chris Elmore, who wrote:

I believe the attached photograph was taken by W W Winter of Derby in 1916 or 17. It shows women who were recruited by the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby during the Great War. These ladies were perhaps the earliest to perform engineering tasks previously only performed by men. My grand mother Ada May Morris née Rudkin is in the photograph (seated second row from the front next to the last right) dressed in black out of respect for her husband Henry Augustus Morris D.C.M. who had died at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916.

Rolls-Royce Armoured Car, unknown date and location
Much has been written about the women who worked in the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby during the Second World War, assembling Merlin engines which powered the celebrated Spitfires, but I've not been able to find a great deal about their role there during the Great War. When war broke out and orders for luxury cars all but disappeared, the factory initially took in some small orders for the manufacture of shell casings and ambulance wagons. The chassis of the Silver Ghost was also adapted for use in the construction of armoured cars, employed by T.E. Lawrence in his desert campaigns, but this was not enough to keep the factory running.


Handley Page Type O Bomber, nr Dead Sea, Palestine, c. 1918-1920
Image courtesy of Middle East Pictures
Although the British government had intended that the Derby factory manufacture existing aero engine designs under license, Henry Royce had other ideas. First tested in early 1915, the Eagle was designed from scratch by Royce and his engineering team, and subsequently became one of the mainstays of the British war effort, used to power a number of aircraft, including the Handley Page bomber. By the end of the war, the plant was making 50 engines a week.

If anyone can shed any further light on the women who worked at the Rolls-Royce Factory during the Great War, the kind of work they did, etc., Chris Elmore will be very grateful for the information.

Here's a quiz for all you budding and practised sleuths out there. What did it take New Zealand and Australia over a century to achieve, while Great Britain and Argentina almost managed it in half a century, and yet countries like India, Sri Lanka and Israel could do it in two or three decades? By the way, the United States has yet to do it, and Saudi Arabia can't do it.

References

Rolls-Royce Eagle and Rolls-Royce Limited, Wikipedia.

Botticelli, Peter (1995) Rolls-Royce and the Rise of High-Technology Industry, in Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries, Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions, Thomas K. McCraw (ed.), pp.96-129.

Clegg, George (1968-1970) George Clegg Reminisces, Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club.

King, Peter (2003) A Woman's Place in the Factory, Derby, BBC WW2 People's War.

Derby Photographers: Pollard Graham

Barker Pollard Graham, like many photographers of his day, went through several "boom and bust" cycles during his lengthy career. Some of these phases of activity were in the form of partnerships, often with local businessmen who would have provided financial backing to his various schemes. It's difficult, perhaps impossible, to assess now how much his failures were due to poor business sense, and how much to unfortunate turns of events - most likely a bit of both.


Carte de visite portrait of John Hunter, junior, September 1880
by Pollard Graham of New Road, Belper & North End, Wirksworth
Images © and courtesy of Ron Cosens
His first venture appears to have been started around 1878 - I don't yet have a firm date - working as a photographer and gelatin dry plate manufacturer at New Road in Belper, but also operating in Wirksworth. Reports of financial difficulties in mid-1881 assert that he traded as "Pollard Graham & Co." Although I have yet to see any other evidence for use of this name at this early stage, I suspect that the "& Co." referred to his brother-in-law Michael Charnock, also a photographer, who was living him on census night in April 1881. In February 1886 there is another report of court proceedings between the "Derby Photographic Dry Plate Company" and "Pollard Graham & Co." but no details of location or are given. To my knowledge the suffix "& Co." never appeared on any of his card mounts or trade directory entries during this period.


Carte de visite portrait of unidentified woman, c.1886-7
by Pollard Graham of New Road, Belper & The Zoological Gardens, Southport
Images © and courtesy of Ron Cosens
Around 1886-1887 Graham replaced his Wirksworth sideline with one at The Zoological Gardens, Southport, as shown only by the addresses on several carte de visites. It seems probable that his visits to Southport were merely seasonal, catering to the zoo's summer visitors, and he is unlikely to have occupied permanent premises there.

In early 1887, together with several Derby businessmen, he registered "Pollard Graham and Company, Limited" in the business of gelatine bromide photographic dry plate manufacturers. In that year he was operating from premises in Agard Street, Derby. Again it appears that the business did not thrive, and three years later, in March 1890, the "stock in trade and working plant" of Pollard Graham & Co., Ltd., Agard Street, Derby was offered for sale. A liquidation notice for Pollard Graham & Co., Ltd., Derwent Dry Plate Works, Agard Street, which had been operating since 1886, appeared in June 1890. As I've not seen any card mounts with the Agard Street address, I'm not sure whether he ever operated a studio from there.


Carte de visite portrait of unidentified woman, c.1891-3
by Pollard Graham of Rodney Chambers, Corn Market, Derby
Image © and courtesy of Lies Ligthard
The portrait business, however, continued, and it is clear from mentions in the local newspaper that he was taking portraits from premises at Rodney Chambers, Corn Market in August 1890. By March 1891 it is likely that his son James Charnock Graham was working for him. This studio appears to have then remained open, possibly continuously, until his death in 1932. I have no clear, unequivocal evidence for it, but I suspect that the portrait studio operated outside the framework of both of these early "Pollard Graham & Co" businesses, which appear to have been formed specifically for the commercial manufacture of dry plates, presumably for supply to local studios.


Carte de visite portrait of unidentified woman, c.1895-7
by Pollard Graham of Derby & Burton on Trent
Images © and collection of Brett Payne
Pollard Graham's next venture was to open a branch studio in the nearby brewing town of Burton-upon-Trent, probably some time between 1893 and 1895. The entries in trade directories for 1896 and 1900 show him with the addresses 12 and 113a Station Street respectively. I believe this branch remained open until around 1900, but again I don't have a firm date for its closure. It is complicated by the firm possibly using card mounts with both "Burton & Derby" and "Derby" addresses simultaneously during this period.


Carte de visite portrait of unidentified woman, c.1905-7
by Pollard Graham of Burnley, Leigh, Peterboro' & Derby
Images © and collection of Brett Payne
From 1903 until 1910, Pollard Graham also operated several other branches, of varying duration, in other Midland towns. According to my research, these were in Peterborough, Burnley, Leigh and Wigan, and all examples that I have seen from these branches were styled "Pollard Graham," with no suffix.


Large format mounted portrait of Lily May Campbell, c.1910
by Pollard Graham & Co. of Burslem, Longton, Coventry & Northampton
Image © and courtesy of Diane Lilley
Some time prior to March 1915, when the partnership was dissolved, Pollard Graham went into a collaboration with Albert Hutchinson. This firm was styled, "Pollard Graham & Co." and at the time of dissolution was operating "in the trade or business of Photographers" at Friar-gate, Derby. From what I can tell, all of the card mounts with "Pollard Graham & Co." printed on them can be ascribed to this pre-war period of operation, when they had branches in Burslem, Longton, Coventry, Northampton, Rotherham, Luton and Lincoln. From an analysis of the photographs which have the "& Co." suffix - sadly, none are dated - and various trade directory entries, I believe that the partnership between Hutchinson and Graham probably corresponds to the use of the "& Co." title, and commenced around 1910. I have not seen any photograph with "Pollard Graham & Co." printed on it, or a trade directory entry for "Pollard Graham & Co." prior to 1910 or after 1915.


Postcard portrait of unidentified man, c.1914
by Pollard Graham of 108A Friargate, Derby
Images © and collection of Brett Payne
The Great War seems to have had a significant impact on Pollard Graham's business. Apparently all of the branch studios were closed around 1914-1915, with only the "Head Office and Works" remaining open until around 1920. It is not clear what happened to the studio at Rodney Chambers, Corn Market during the War, because it the address is not shown on extant postcard backs from 1915-1920. It may have been closed temporarily until business picked up again in peace time.


Postcard portrait of Caroline Sadler, c.1921-5
by Pollard Graham of Derby & Northampton
Images © and courtesy of Caroline Dean
In about 1920, perhaps sensing business was indeed rejuvenating, he opened a new branch in Northampton.


Postcard portrait of unidentified man, c.1925-6
by Pollard Graham of Derby, Northampton, Kettering & Wellingborough
Images © and courtesy of Rob Jennings
Around 1925, he went into a short-lived partnership with his son James, and they opened more branches, successively, in Kettering and Wellingborough. Postcards and card mounts bear the name "Pollard Graham & Son" and "Pollard Graham & Son's Studios," respectively. This would not last long, however. The partnership was dissolved in October 1926, Pollard Graham keeping the Corn Market studio, and his son retaining the others.


Postcard portrait of Ada Mary Oxspring, c.1928-32
by Pollard Graham of Rodney Chambers, Corn Market, Derby
Images © and courtesy of Graham Robinson
From late 1926 until his death in 1932, Pollard Graham continued to take portraits at Rodney Chambers, Corn Market.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank all of those who have kindly contributed both images and information over a period of some years for my revised profile of the Derby photographer Pollard Graham - without them, this study would be very patchy.

Nigel Aspdin, Hilary Booth, Betty Bowler, Boz, Kerrie Brailsford, Pat Cahill, Grace-Ellen Capier, John Copley, Brian Coxon, Helen Cullum, Joss Davis, Caroline Dean, Sophie Dickerson, Chris Elmore, Jack Fletcher, John Frearson, Helen Frost, Gillian Fynes, Angela Galloway, Brian Goodhead, Angus Graham, Clive Greatorex, Carole Haywood, John Hoddinott, Martin Jackson, Rob Jennings, Kim Klump, Lies Ligthart, Diane Lilley, Dorothy Livesey, Marilyn McMillan, Cynthia Maddock, Barry Muir, Sarah Nash, Margaret Page, Graham Pare, Fran Powles, Alan Radford, Kevin Rhodes, Graham Robinson, David Roughley, Robert Silverwood, Derek Smith, Valerie Stern, Lynne Tedder and Andrew Wryobek.