Picnics and beach gatherings, c.1910-1915

Nigel Aspdin sent me scans of a few amateur snapshots from the album of his great-uncle Charles "Charlie" Sydney Smith (1890-1918) which fit nicely into the series of beach photographs that I've featured over the last couple of months. Nigel is not sure exactly when the photographs were taken, but believes from several of the other photos in the album that it must have been shortly before Charlie left for France and the Great War. This narrows it down to the period approximately c. 1910-1915.


Charlie Smith, Trix Slater and friends
Amateur print mounted in album, 74.5 x 57.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
The first image shows a group of four friends having a picnic. Wearing pin-striped suits and bow-ties, they're not dressed in the manner we might attend such an informal function, but it was probably appropriate for the time and the class of society to which they belonged. They are sitting or lying on a tartan picnic blanket in the dappled shade of a tree, adjacent to a wooden shed or high fence. They have been drinking tea (perhaps whisky too) and there appears to be a large, half-eaten fruit cake. There are six teacups visible around the blanket, so there was probably another couple present, one of whom took the photograph.

Charlie Smith is on the right, with a post-prandial cigarette between the fingers of his left hand, and seated to his immediate right is his fiancée Beatrice "Trix" Slater (1889-1937). The other couple are unidentified (as are most of the people in the remaining photographs in this selection). He has a cigarette dangling from his lips; she is holding one in her left hand, either on behalf of the photographer or perhaps guiltily as if she should not be smoking. They were obviously friends of Charlie and Trix, but there are unfortunately no annotations in the album to identify either the locations or the participants.


Roadside gathering, Trix Slater and friends
Amateur print mounted in album, 93.5 x 52.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
This photo, located on the same page as and immediately below the previous one in the album, shows Trix Slater (at far left) with two couples and a dog, but they are different people from those seen at the picnic. They are lying down in the grass, on what appears to be a road verge, facing the photographer. I assume that Charlie was taking the photograph, and it seems likely that he took most of the photographs in the album. Although the friends are not identified - and Nigel is on holiday at the moment, so he can't confirm it immediately - I believe that the young man on the right hand side is Nigel's grandfather Bertie Dyche Aspdin (1871-1943) and next to him is Trix's sister Evelyn Amelia Slater (1887-1967). Bertie and Evelyn were married in mid-1914, so whether they were husband and wife at this time depends on when the photograph was taken.


Detail of roadside gathering, probably Evelyn Amelia Aspdin née Slater
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Conversely, one might interpret the ring that Evelyn is wearing, and displaying prominently, on her left hand as indicating they were already married, although it could well be an engagement ring rather than a wedding band.


Group at the seaside, leaning on balustrade
Amateur print mounted in album, 102.5 x 78 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
The next two shots show groups of men, women and boys at the seaside, preparing to go for a swim. Beatrice is sitting in the middle of the front row. They are dressed in raincoats, what look like bath gowns and a wide variety of headgear, which seem rather bizarre by today's standards, but was presumably dictated by the rules of decorum prevalent at the time, in order to preserve their modesty before they actually entered the water.


Large group of fourteen at the beach
Amateur print mounted in album, 98 x 70 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
In the second of these two photos a different, much larger jovial group, including two young lads, is standing on the ripple-marked beach itself. Check out the placement of hands! I won't name the reader who sent me the comment, "My father told me never to miss an opportunity."


Preparing to enter the water
Amateur print mounted in album, 82.5 x 71.0 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Then a sequence of three photos show two of the young ladies from the large group (standing at 4th from left and at far right, respectively) disrobing and entering the water.


"No excuses, we can't put it off any longer"
Amateur print mounted in album, 74.0 x 75.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
After removal of their outer wrappings the two women head to join three of the men who are at the water's edge already.


"Come on in, although I can't promise the water's warm"
Amateur print mounted in album, 57.0 x 51.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
They're putting on brave faces, but I doubt the water's very warm.


Testing the water
Amateur print mounted in album, 97.0 x 72.5 mm
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
The last in the series is possibly on a completely separate outing to a stony, rather than sandy, beach. Three fully dressed women have taken their shoes off - although not their magnificent hats - and are testing out the water, while a man with a camera stands beyond them, ankle-deep in the water, preparing to take a shot with his camera.


Detail of previous photograph
Image © and courtesy of Nigel Aspdin
Unfortunately the photo is not quite detailed enough for me to be able to identify the type of camera, although it looks to be some kind of box-type, perhaps similar to one of the Kodak Brownie range.

The latest 1897 Paris fashions in Walsall

I have read of people identifying jewellery in old family photographs as being heirlooms which they themselves subsequently inherited, and in a previous article I posted a photograph of an unidentified family member wearing some jewellery. My own knowledge about jewellery is almost non-existent but the brooch being worn by the young woman in this photo is one from which even I can derive some information immediately. It is thus an appropriate entry for the footnoteMaven's 16th Smile for the Camera Carnival, Bling Ancestor.


Rachel Elizabeth Benfield (1880-1956)
Carte de visite portrait by F.T. Webb, 4 South Street, Walsall
Image © and collection of Barbara Ellison
An inscription on the reverse of the cabinet card portrait identifies the subject as, "Rachel Benfield married Fred Payne." This was Rachel Elizabeth Benfield (1880-1956) who married my great-grandfather's younger brother Fred Payne (1879-1946) at the Trinity Wesleyan Church in Corporation Street, Walsall on 22 May 1901. I have written previously about Fred here and here. The writing is in the hand of my aunt - she knew her great-aunt Rachel, and I have no cause to doubt her identification. Rachel, or Ray as she was known to our branch of the family, was born on 2 June 1880 in Walsall, one of eleven children (eight boys and three girls) of blacksmith Joseph Benfield (1855-1900) and Phoebe Kendrick (1854-1951).


Confirmation of my aunt's identification is provided, however, in the form of the brooch that she is wearing at her neck. An enlargement (click on image above) clearly shows that it is in the shape of the name "Rachel." There aren't any other close family members that I'm aware of with this name, so it has to be her. She also has a corsage with what appears to be a large white rose bud, and another dangly thing at the left which I can't quite make out.


Detail of Paris Reception Gown
In Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898, 25 December 1897
Image © and courtesy of Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar 1867-1898 by Stella Blum
I'm also interested in the style of dress that she is wearing. It seems very elaborate with a lot of detailed embroidery on the large collar and sleeves. I found an engraving dated 1897 of a gown with a very similar squarish wide collar in Stella Blum's very useful Victorian Fashions & Costumes. The caption to that illustration contains the following details of the construction of the garment:

The distinctive part of the gown is a collar which is cut out in front and back like a square neck dress ... point-lace, which is appliqued onto the velvet, and is bordered by a band of sable fur.

1901 Census: Benfield family in Walsall
Image © The National Archives and courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk
On census night (Sunday 31 March) 1901 Rachel was living with her family at 33 Camden Street, Walsall. She described herself as a dressmaker, and her younger sister Florence was a milliner. Kristina Harris, in the introduction to her 1999 book Authentic Victorian Fashions, writes the following about the "average, middle-class American woman" of the 1890s:

Most ... women brought fashion plates (from one of the many ... fashion magazines available ...) to her dressmaker; the dressmaker customized a chosen outfit according to her skills and her customer's desires ... If there was no dressmaker in town, or if a lady could not afford one, her next best source was a local seamstress - a housewife who took in sewing part time. For many women, one new dress a season was all that could be afforded; some women felt fortunate to be able to have one newdress a year. It was fabric, not labor, that was usually the most expensive factor in creating a new dress.

The fact that Rachel's 1901 census entry reads, "Dress Maker, Own account, At home," indicates that she was self-employed, and probably took in dressmaking jobs as described by Harris. Her sister Florence, on the other hand, was described as a worker and would therefore have been employed in a local milliner's shop. It seems very likely that Rachel made this dress which she is wearing in the Webb portrait. She would have copied or adapted the design from something similar to the engraving from Harper's Weekly shown above, according to her means. For example the lace, would have been very expensive to purchase, would have been replaced with some kind of embroidery or brocade. She looks to be aged between 18 and 21, and I estimate that the portrait was taken in 1900 or 1901, perhaps not long before her marriage, which took place three weeks after the census.

The photographer Frederick Thomas Webb was originally a japanner, artist and portrait painter from Wolverhampton, settling in Walsall with his wife Mary Ann née Jones in the late 1880s. By 1901 he had turned his hand to portrait photography, operating a studio from his house at 4 South Street. It is not clear how long he remained in business.


Oriental design on carte de visite tissue protector
by F.T. Webb of Walsall, c.1900-1901
Image © and collection of Barbara Ellison
The carte de visite has a rather nice preserved tissue protector with an oriental design that I've not seen before.

References

Copy of Marriage Certificate for F. Payne & R.E. Benfield, Collection of Brett Payne

Blum, Stella (ed.) (1974) Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar, 1867-1898. Dover Publications, New York. 294p. ISBN 0486229904.

Harris, Kristina (ed.) (1999) Authentic Victorian Fashion Patterns, A Complete Lady's Wardrobe. Dover Publications, New York. 136p. ISBN 0486407217.

1841-1901 UK Census indexed images from The National Archives and Ancestry.co.uk

Haymaking in Derbyshire

Having just taken delivery of some hay for our two hungry cows, to tide them through this especially cool winter and corresponding period of poor grass growth, today's submission for the footnoteMaven's 15th Edition of the Smile for the Camera Carnival, "They worked hard for the family," (hosted on Shades of the Departed) is an appropriate choice.

The professions of our ancestors are almost as interesting as the people themselves. Some of our ancestors worked very hard; they took in laundry, worked the land, raised many children, or went to school and became professionals. Photographs of them working are called occupational photographs and are rather hard to find.

When I started this blog just over two years ago, I wrote in my introductory article that I wanted to include examples of "Victorian photos showing aspects of ordinary daily life." Unfortunately, as fM states, such photos are not very common, and I don't come across many. In my own family collection, for example, I have no occupational photographs prior to the Great War, apart from those which show people undergoing military training.


Print mounted on thin card, roughly trimmed to 67 x 102 mm
Unidentified subject, location and photographer
Image © and collection of Brett Payne
This photograph of a magnificently moustachioed man gathering hay is from an album that I purchased on eBay a few years ago. Although the album contains a dedication to its owner from one Henry Mitchell at Allestree in Derbyshire, dated 25 August 1894, none of the photographs in the album had captions or were annotated in anyway. My primary interest in the album was that most of the studio portraits within it were from Derby studios, and many of them have been featured on my web site devoted to Derbyshire Photographers & Photographic Studios.


Allestree Album, c. 1894, Approx. 215 x 265 x 55 mm
Collection of Brett Payne
The album is typical of the kind produced in the 1880s and early 1890s. It has a padded leather cover embossed with a stylised floral design, probably in the art nouveau style, and ten thick cardboard leaves with spaces for eight cabinet cards and 48 cartes de visite. Only two of the CDV slots are missing photographs, although some ofthem are occupied by other formats of photo, trimmed to fit. Four of the pages have coloured floral designs. The metal clasp is unfortunately broken, and several of the paper photo sleeves are torn, but this does not detract too much from its overall appearance, as can be seen from the image above.

In February last year I wrote an article about how a visitor to my Derbyshire Photographers web site had come across an image of a cabinet card of her great-grandparents Henry & Ann Jane Statham in the profile of photographer W.N. Statham, identical to one hanging in her home. That photograph, together with a carte de visite of daughters Gertrude and Lilian, and a cabinet card of sons Isaac and Henry, came from this Allestree album.

Of the 54 photographs in the album, 32 are clearly marked as having been taken at Derbyshire studios, including Matlock Bridge, Matlock Bath, Derby, Chesterfield and Shirebrook, while a further five were taken at Nottingham, Leicester and Loughborough. As 86% of the marked portraits were from Derbyshire, it seems likely that at a good proportion of the remaining unmarked photographs were also taken in Derbyshire.


Unfortunately we have yet to identify any other of the many people depicted in it, or even the "Henry Mitchell" who wrote the dedication in the front of the album. As a result we have few clues to the identity of the haymaker or the location of the field in which the hay is being gathered. It is possible that at some time in the future a reader might recognise the stone walls, field and row of houses in the image above. I hope it will happen but, to be honest, I think that is a long shot. For the moment we will have to enjoy the photograph for what it is, a portrait of a hard working man. Having shifted the occasional bale of two of hay myself, I know it is very hard work.

Job Bramley and The Family Fry Pan Portrait Gallery

I purchased this carte de visite a couple of years ago on eBay mainly because I thought it was an unusually striking portrait. However, the reverse of the card mount revealed a story which proved to be as intriguing as the subjects.


The portrait is of a young woman, perhaps in her mid- to late twenties or early thirties, with a young child in her lap. What makes it unusual, at least to me, is that the child appears to be asleep. I think there will be quite a few readers who will assert that she is dead and that this is a post-mortem portrait, but I don't think so. The woman is facing straight into the camera with a very direct look, and it's not exactly a happy look, but I don't think it's a sad one either. The child looks asleep, with slightly tousled hair, and may be wearing a christening gown. I think the photographer has merely taken advantage of the opportunity. In other words, the child being asleep would enable him obtain a sharp portrait without the usual fidgeting and impatience.

The style of the woman's clothes, her hair, the studio setting and the card mount all suggest to me a date of the mid- to late 1860s. The gigot or leg-of-mutton sleeve, narrow at the shoulder, and flaring from just below the shoulder to become fullest at the mid-forearm, and then tapering rapidly down to become closed at the wrists was common in the early to mid-1860s, as was the full, dome-shaped striped crinoline skirt. The ribbons around her neck are in a style which became fashionable around 1866. Her hair is centrally parted and tied back above her ears, which also became fashionable only in the second half of the 1860s. The straight-on, full face seated pose is of a style which was more common in the 1850s - the ambrotype era - but would perhaps have been employed in this case in preference to a standing profile, or three-quarter view because of the necessity to include of the sleeping child. The studio background is simple, with a nicely painted backdrop showing a plain wall with low skirting board, a window with open shutters, and a portion of a rural scene. Whatever studio furniture is being used, it is hidden by the woman's boddice and skirts.


The card mount is made from relatively thin card with square corners, indicating a date of prior to c. 1874. The design on the reverse is of a style which was fairly common in the late 1860s and early 1870s. A device or emblem - in this case, rather unusually a frying pan - is enveloped by text in a single font style, but three different font sizes, and the whole is surrounded with a simple double line frame with scalloped corners. The frames are more commonly seen in the 1870s, but are not too rare in the late 1860s to preclude this example dating from that period.


I have seen many different emblems used as the centrepiece in early card mount designs, from the standard monograms, coats of arms, artist's palettes and early box cameras to cherubs, Freemason's insignia and other heraldic devices. However, I have never before encountered a frying pan. It suggested to me that the practitioner may have been taking portraits merely as a sideline, and provided a clue to the photographer's primary occupation, but it was not an easy one to research.

Initially, a simple Google search for the string "Family Fry Pan" and the word "Leicester" revealed an 1866 book entitled The History of Signboards from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (by Jacob Larwood & John Camden Hotten) with the following (p. 396):

The Frying Pan is still a constant ironmonger's sign - thus in Highcross Street, Leicester, there is a gigantic gilt specimen with the inscription "the Family Fry Pan." There are trades tokens of "John Vere, at ye Frying Pan in Islington, Mealman," which considered in connexion with pancakes, one can understand; but it certainly looks out of place at the door of Samuel Wadsell, bookseller at the Golden Frying Pan, in Leadenhall Street, 1680.

Deducing the identity of J.Bramley was not quite so easy. Although there was a well known firm of ironmongers by the name of Bramley operating in Leicester during the 1870s and 1880s, the name of the proprietor was William Forrester Bramley and his premises were in Granby Street. He did have a son John Simpson Bramley who was listed as an ironmonger's assistant in 1871, but he appears not to have been the photographer in question.


View Larger Map
The key to the story actually lies in the premises listed on the reverse of the card mount. From an examination of street listings in trade directories of the 1860s to 1880s, the Family Fry Pan Studio appears to have been located on the south-east corner of High Cross and High Streets, as shown in the GoogleMaps view above. In the early 1860s premises at this address were occupied by one William Banton, who operated an eating house and refreshment rooms (1861-1862) and later, presumably after he had obtained a licence, a beerhouse and boarding house. However by 1864 the shop had been taken over by Mary Parker, widow of a Leicester hosier, Thomas Parker. She operated as a glass, china, earthenware, hardware & ironware dealer and wholesale haberdasher, and from around 1870 her sister and brother-in-law Elizabeth and Job Bramley joined her. A trade directory of that year lists the business as Parker & Bramley, hardware dealers and haberdashers and shows Job Bramley as the manager, although the census a years later describes him as "shopman to [a] haberdasher."


Edward VII postbox on St Nicholas Place, Leicester
Building on cnr of High & High Cross streets in the background
Image © Copyright Keith Williams & courtesy of Geograph.co.uk and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Job Bramley was born c. 1815-1816 at Basford, probably a son of a woodman William Bramley. He was a tailor in his twenties and, after marrying Elizabeth Butt at Nottingham in 1840, lived in Willoughby-on-the-Woulds, Sneinton and Stapleford (Nottinghamshire) before settling in Derby between 1845 and 1851. By 1861 he also operated a druggist's shop at 20 Derby Road. They joined Elizabeth's sister Mary in Leicester at some stage in the late 1860s, although the exact date is unknown. In 1877 he was listed as a manager, and a year later as a haberdasher & general dealer, so perhaps the partnership had been dissolved by then.

By April 1881 Job and Elizabeth Bramley had moved to Halifax, Yorkshire, where he described himself as a general dealer, and the premises at 106 High Street, Leicester had been taken over by Alfred James Garner. By 1891 the proprietor of the business, still known as The Family Frypan, was William Hallam. Further references to The Family Frypan have been found for the first decade of the 20th Century. Job Bramley died at Halifax in 1892, aged 75.

The most likely date for the portrait is probably c. 1867-1870. Bernard and Pauline Heathcote's excellent index to Leicester photographers doesn't mention either Job Bramley or the Family Frypan Studio, and I think this suggests that it must have only been operating for a brief period of time. This seems a pity to me, because I think Bramley had a good eye for portrait photography, and he might have done well. However, he would have been up against considerable competition, such as the well established firm of .John Burton & Sons and others.

References

Larwood, Jacob & Hotten, John Camden (1866) The History of Signboards from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, (12th impression, 1908, Chatto & Windus, London, courtesy of BiblioBazaar and GoogleBooks)

Trade Directories from the University of Leicester's Historical Directories
White's Directory and Gazetteer Nottinghamshire, 1844
White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Derbyshire and Sheffield, 1857
Slater's Directory of Leicestershire, 1862
History, Gazetteer & Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland, 1863
Wright's Midland Directory, 1864
Buchanan & Co.'s Directory of Leicester & Market Towns, 1867
Street, Alphabetical & Trade Directory of Leicester, 1870
Post Office Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland, 1876
History, Gazetteer & Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland, 1877
Wright's Directory of Leicester & Six Miles Round, 1878
Kelly's Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland, 1881
Kelly's Directory of Leicestershire, 1891

UK Census 1841-1901 Indexed images from Ancestry.co.uk

International Genealogical Index (IGI) from the LDS Church & FamilySearch

General Register Office Index to Births, Marriages & Deaths from FreeBMD

Heathcote, Bernard V. & Heathcote, Pauline F. (1982) Leicester Photographic Studios in Victorian & Edwardian Times, publ. Royal Photographic Society Historical Group

Summer holidays at Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg, circa 1920

Some years ago, my father and I did some research on, and corresponded with each other about, three snapshots which had come from my grandfather Leslie Payne's collection. I have previously discussed our tentative conclusions about the locations of these photographs in a series of articles written about my grandfather's early years in Canada, both prior to and after the Great War, here and here. The publishing of Jasia's very readable 74th COG Swimsuit Edition on Creative Gene and several other recent posts with beach holiday themes in the blogging community has prompted me to look at these again, as I have done many times over the years. I was particularly keen to examine them in light of my discovery a couple of years ago, in my paternal aunt's photo collection, of a number of related pictures. I can't really explain my need to discover exactly where and when these photographs were taken, and who my grandfather's friends were, but to many of readers I'm sure I don't really need to find substantive reasons or make any excuses! It's part of the genealogical journey of discovery.


"Boulder Photo"
A group of young men and women seated on a large boulder at a rocky beach, near a large body of open water, Leslie Payne seated 2nd from left, c. 1919-1921
Print © and collection of C.B. Payne
In 2000, I wrote the following:

I have persuaded myself that these - unfortunately unannotated - photographs must have been taken during the period that Leslie Payne lived in Winnipeg between 1919 and 1921. Is it possible that they were taken during an excursion to the shores of either Lake Winnipeg or Lake Manitoba. The large boulder in [this] photo appears, to both my father and I (amateur and professional geologists, respectively), to be a glacial erratic. For this reason, it doesn't seem likely that the photo could have been taken in England.

"Beach Photo"
Two couples on a sandy beach, Leslie Payne at left, c. 1919-1921
Print © and collection of C.B. Payne


"Rustic Bench Photo"
A group seated on a wooden bench at a tented camp, Leslie Payne at right, c. 1919-1921
Print © and collection of C.B. Payne

There is a third photograph showing two of these friends, as well as my grandfather and another unindentified man (at left). They are seated on a rustic looking bench fashioned from saplings. Leslie is at the right, leaning forwards slightly; next are the couple who appeared in both the Boulder and Beach photos. The bench is located against the wall of what appears to be a large canvas tent, situated in a wood. Was it some sort of camp? Where were these three photos taken, and who are the other people (three male and three female) with Leslie Payne. Was the man common to all three a friend from the WW1 Machine Gun Corps, perhaps, and the lady next to him, who also appears in all three, his wife or girlfriend?

"Mandolin Photo"
A large group seated on a wooden bench at a tented camp, Leslie Payne at right in middle row, c. 1919-1921
Print © and collection of Brett Payne Courtesy of Margaret Pugh
In 2003, as a result of some correspondence with the niece of one of my grandfather's old Machine Gun Corps buddies in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, she sent me a photograph from her late uncle Pete McLaggan's photo album. It appeared to have been taken in the same tented camp and at the same time as the "Rustic Bench Photo." This time one of the subjects was holding a mandolin - presumably they were having a sing-along - and smoke from a wood fire can be seen drifting across the background. After doing a little more research on the history of the beaches on Lake Winnipeg I wrote:

Between 1915 and 1919, in an area at the southern end of Lake Winnipeg already popular with campers, cottages started to appear around an area known as Victoria Beach. This was aided by the arrival of the rail line - and a regular rail service - in 1916, and the formation of a municipality in August 1919, which made Victoria Beach a very convenient and popular weekend destination for Winnipeg residents. It seems probable that all four of the above photographs were taken on or close to the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Contemporary and historical images of Grand Beach and Victoria Beach found on the web suggest either area as a possible location for both the camp and beach photos. However, without first-hand knowledge of the area, it is difficult for me to be sure, and it could just as easily be one of the several other beaches nearby, such as Gimli, Hillside or Patricia Beaches.

The fact that two individuals - apart from Leslie Payne - are common to all four photos supports the idea that they were taken at roughly the same period as each other. Comparison with pre-war photographs of Leslie illustrates that these are definitely post-war.

This narrowed down the potential date to between February 1919, after his demobilisation from the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Winnipeg, and May 1921, when he returned to Derbyshire, England. I also identified a couple in the "Mandolin Photo" from other annotated photos in my Dad's collection as Laura and Stewart Morris, friends of Leslie from his time in Winnipeg. Stewart Morris appears to have been a fellow employee at Eaton's Department Store.


Victoria Beach, Manitoba, on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, 20 October 2007.
Digital image © Ken Gillespie and courtesy of the Canadian Geographic PhotoClub
However, there were still several other unidientified people, and I couldn't really be sure about the location. As shown by historical and more recent photographs of the area, including the stunning shot of a sunset at Victoria Beach by talented Winnipeg photographer Ken Gillespie shown above, there were and still are several sites which might have had a mixture of such rocky and sandy beaches.


In my aunt's collection, which she kindly allowed me and my brother to scan in October 2007, I made the exciting discovery of an additional 21 snapshots in the same group as the four described previously. I've uploaded images of these, together with others relating to Leslie Payne's years spent in Canada between 1912 and 1921, to my Picasa Web Albums. This enabled me to sort them out into groups arranged roughly by date and setting.


Leslie Payne (back row, left), Stewart Morris (back row, centre) and four others
Probably at Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
I was able to separate them into two groups, based on photographic printers batch numbers stamped on the reverse of the prints. The bulk of them have a "C 21" stamp, while three have a "B 21" stamp. These latter three are obviously contemporaneous with the others, and it seems likely that they were taken by a different photographer in the group. Every photograph includes my grandfather. Although most have inscriptions, these have been made by my aunt, and only relate to my grandfather - none of the other subjects are identified. Two photographs, including the one shown above, are similar to the "Boulder Photo."


Leslie Payne (seated at right), Laura Morris (standing at right) and four others
Probably at Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
There were also two photos (one of which is included above) showing the same group of six that was featured in the first "Boulder Photo," but standing or sitting on a smaller boulder partially submerged in the water.


Leslie Payne (standing at right) and three others
Probably at Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
Next there are two photos with similar, although not quite identical, attitude and subjects to the "Beach Photo" described earlier.


Leslie Payne (front row, second from left) and eight others
Probably at Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
A further seven shots are in a similar vein, of various groups of between three and eleven people lying, seated and standing on a sandy beach, but apparently taken looking in the opposite direction, away from the water. While all of them appear posed, some have a more conventional portrait structure than others. Some are perhaps a little later in the day, as several of the subjects have donned more layers of clothing. Several are of somewhat poorer quality, either out of focus, poorly framed, or with subjects turned away from the camera. The example above is one of the better ones, with only one chap ignoring the "say cheese" request. In the background can be seen some partly vegetated low hills, possibly sand dunes, telegraph poles, other groups of beachgoers (one of them looks as though he might be eating an ice cream cone), including a child, and a bandstand, gazebo or small pavilion.


Leslie Payne (second from right) and eight others
Probably at Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
This more relaxed pose was probably shot only a few minutes after the previous one.


Leslie Payne (right) and two others, with Dancing Pavilion in background
Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
The next two photos are similar, showing Leslie Payne and two others lying on the beach, but have a different background view, possibly to the right of the others, which includes a very large building with a rounded roof.


Detail of Dancing Pavilion, Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Image © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
It is this building, shown enlarged in the image above, which has provided, at least for me, incontrovertible proof that at least some of these photographs were taken at Grand Beach.


Dancing Pavilion, Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg, undated
Image © and courtesy of Grand Beach Visitors Guide
The Grand Beach and East Beach Visitors Area web site has an article on the history of the area, apparently based on a book Grand Beach - The Grand Old Days by Susan Lemoine and Tim Barnfather (publ. 1978, Manitoba Department of Tourism, Manitoba). Several photographs are displayed, presumably taken from the book, two of which are included here.


Interior of Dancing Pavilion, Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg, undated
Image © and courtesy of Grand Beach Visitors Guide

The grandest of all the buildings at Grand Beach was the Dance Pavilion. Rumour has it that this was the largest Dance Hall of its time in the Commonwealth. Until its destruction by fire in 1950, this was the major source of entertainment and the central meeting spot of the resort community. Entire families and all age groups would enjoy the music of the band hired by the railway for the entire season. Admission was originally free, but in the Twenties "Jitney" (a nickel a dance) dancing began.

Boardwalk & Dancing Pavilion, Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg
Image © Western Canada Pictorial Index and courtesy of Manitoba Conservation

A boardwalk was built over the years that extended from the station to the lagoon along the beach front. Hot and crowded during the day, lit up at night, the boardwalk provided sure footing for shoe-clad feet and food for hungry beach-goers. The first hot dog and soft drink stand was built in 1923. Under the boardwalk the shade was welcome. Treasure hunters could be rewarded with some loose change. Itinerant travellers found the boardwalk an ideal shelter. They say Sandy is the name given to a girl-child conceived under the boardwalk. Whatever the recreational preference, the boardwalk offered a variety of diversions.

The carousel was an awesome and magical building. Filled with hand-crafted animals: studs, mares and ponies, whirling in an endless circle to the tinkling music, their manes flying, teeth bared, hooves raised, forever frozen in time.

Leslie Payne (back) and friends, probably Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
There are two photographs showing a group of six beachgoers posing in a line on a wooden pier. In the left-hand image Laura and Stewart Morris are at the head of the line, while my Grandpa is at the back, but I have not yet been able to identify the other three. The electric lamp hanging from a pole at the end of the pier suggests that it might be part of the boardwalk system described above. There is also part of a rowing boat visible in the background.

I've included the second, very similar shot, because it appears that the photographer of the first picture has gone into the line (fourth from the front), and Stewart Morris has taken the second. I think we can assume that one of these two characters is the primary photographer in all the shots with "C 21" batch stamp. Since Stewart Morris only appears in two shots in the entire collection, and the other man appears in a great many, I think it very likely that it was Stewart who owned the camera and took the photos during this holiday period. The three from the "B 21" batch may have been taken with a different camera by another member of the group, although the possibility exists that one of the batches actually consists of reprints from the same original negatives as the other batch.


Leslie Payne (at right) and friends, at a tented camp
probably Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
The final group of five photographs is from the tented camp in the woods, previously illustrated in the "Rustic Bench" and "Mandolin" photos above. Two of them include a much older couple, and I have speculated that they are possibly parents of one of the young people and owners of the property.


Leslie Payne (at right) and friends, at a tented camp
probably Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
This photograph is another view of the wooden bench and canvas tent, but from a slightly different angle. Hanging from the awning of the tent are two flags, a Union Jack on the left and what appears to be a version of the Canadian Red Ensign on the right.


Detail of Canadian Red Ensign flag
Paper Print © and courtesy of Barbara Ellison
Nigel Aspdin has discussed the history of this design at some length on his vexicological blog, What's that flag.


The "Nine Provinces" Canadian Red Ensign of 1907, unofficial flag of Canada from 1907 to 1921
Image courtesy of 'Orange Tuesday' and Wikipedia
It appears to me to be a slightly modified or unofficial version of the "Nine Province" Canadian Red Ensign of 1907 after Alberta and Saskatchewan had been added, as illustrated in this Wikipedia article. Sharp spotted readers will notice, however, that the lower left and lower centre sectors have been switched around. Alistair B. Fraser in his The Flags of Canada - The Country: Chapter IV, describes the genesis of the Canadian Red Ensigns and the design of the 1907 Nine Province badge. He also discusses the rise in use of the Union Flag (or Union Jack) after the turn of the century, and the common simulataneous use of the two flags before, during and after the war.

It appears to me that Leslie Payne spent a few days, or perhaps several weekends, during the summer of either 1919 or 1920, with a group of friends camping at Grand Beach, an easy train trip from Winnipeg, during which time they spent a good deal of time at the nearby beach. There are at least a dozen individuals in these photographs, some of whom were probably in the same camp, while others may have been staying nearby. I have mentioned Stewart and Laura Morris, who I identified from annotated photographs of the same era. However, I don't know who any of the others were.

My grandfather received a book in October 1921, after he had returned to England, from someone who signed themself as "P" living at 43 Fawcett Avenue, Winnipeg, with the following inscription, "fulfilling a promise made two years earlier." My aunt believes this was a girlfriend named Peggy, but has no further information about her. Perhaps Peggy was one of those in the photographs. I'm hoping that some day, someone from the Winnipeg area will recognise a family member in the images included above, but I will admit that it's a long shot.


Today's article is my entry for the 5th Edition of the Canadian Genealogy Carnival hosted by looking4ancestors.