Professional Photographers in Eastbourne

Bexhill Photographers (A-B)

Professional Photographers in Bexhill ( A - B )

Alice Armstrong - Balk & Brown - Leon Balk - Bodom and Hawley - Hjalmar Bodom - Bridgman & Robbins - Otto Brown

Alice ARMSTRONG (born 1876, Dovenby, Cumbria )

[ABOVE] Portrait of John Hemery , photographed by Miss Alice Armstrong of 32 Eversley Road, Bexhill (c1914). John Hemery, who was born in South America at Georgetown, British Guiana, on 2nd September 1910. John was the son of Percy Emery (1851-1935), a British civil servant who was based in British Guiana for most of his working career. Percy Hemery returned to England with his wife and children in October 1910 and settled in Bexhill. In adult life, John Hemery emigrated to the United States where he started a new life in California. John Hemery died at Luna, New Mexico on 7th February 2000, at the age of 89.

[ABOVE] Portrait of a girl in fancy dress, photographed by Miss Alice Armstrong of 32 Eversley Road, Bexhill (c1915).

Alice Armstrong was born in Dovenby, Cumberland (Cumbria) in 1876, the daughter of Betsy Graham and Tyler Walter Armstrong, a land steward for the Dykes family of Dovenby Hall. [Birth of Alice Armstrong was registered in the Cockermouth district of Cumberland during Third Quarter of 1876]. Tyler Walter Armstrong, Alice's father, was born in Penrith, Cumberland in 1842, the son of John and Agnes Armstrong. Tyler Armstrong married Betsy Graham (born c1849, Hesket-in-the-Forest, Cumberland) at Penrith during the Second Quarter of 1873. The couple had at least seven children, all of whom were born at Dovenby - Annie (born 1874), Emily (born 1875), Alice (born 1876), Arthur Graham (born1876), Louisa (born 1880), Colvin Tyler (born 1882) and Winifred (born 1885).

Tyler Armstrong, Alice's father, died in 1885 at the age of 43. His widow, Mrs Betsy Armstrong, took her family to Keswick in the Lake District, where she let out apartments to tourists and holidaymakers. between 1891 and 1897 at Leaming House, The Head, Keswick, According to her own publicity, Mrs Betsy Armstrong offered "first class accommodation" and "splendid lake & mountain scenery" to her customers at Leaming House.

When the 1901 census was taken, Mrs Betsy Armstrong and five of her children were residing in Clapham, London. According to the census return,Colvin Tyler Armstrong, aged 19, was working as an "Architect" and twenty-two year old Arthur Graham Armstrong was studying Chemistry. Mrs Armstrong is described as "Living on Means", but two of her two daughters were in employment. Annie Armstrong, the eldest daughter, gives her occupation as "Merchant's Clerk". Alice Armstrong is entered on the 1901 census return as a "Photographer", aged 24.

By 1911, Mrs Betsy Armstrong had moved to Bexhill and was letting out apartments to holidaymakers at 32 Eversley Road, Bexhill. It was from this address that Miss Alice Armstrong ran her photography business during the First World War. Miss Alice Armstrong is listed as a photographer at 32 Eversley Road, Bexhill in the editions of Kelly's Sussex Directory published in 1915 and 1918.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Richard Hemery for providing the portrait of John Hemery by Miss Alice Armstrong. John Hemery was Richard Hemery's uncle.

Leon BALK (born 1878, Taurage, Lithuania) Photographer with studios in Eastbourne and Bexhill between 1903 and 1915

BALK & BROWN Photographic firm with studios in Eastbourne and Bexhill between 1905 and 1906

Leon Balk was born in 1878 in Taurage (Tavrig), a town in the western part of Lithuania. At the time of Leon's birth, this part of Lithuania was under the control of Russia. There was a flourishing Jewish community in Taurage and at the end of the 19th century, over 50% of the inhabitants of Taurage were Jews. However, in the late 19th century, there was a tide of emigration from Lithuania. During the period 1899 -1903, over 52,000 Lithuanians emigrated to the United States. Large numbers of Lithuanian Jews sailed for South Africa, but a considerable number arrived in England and Scotland. Young men had fled Lithuania to avoid being conscripted into the Russian Army. Others were seeking a better life in Britain. Many of the Lithuanian Jews left their homes in Taurage to escape persecution from the Russian authorities and the growing anti-Semitic violence. Leon Balk appears to have left Lithuania as a young man and probably arrived in London after 1901.

Leon Balk settled in Eastbourne, Sussex around 1903. In an Eastbourne directory of 1904, Leon Balk is listed as a photographer at 114 Langney Road, Eastbourne. By 1905, Leon Balk was operating a photographic studio at 116 Langney Road, Eastbourne. Around this time, Leon Balk entered into partnership with Otto Brown ( born 1883, Long Sutton, Somerset ), a young artist who had previously worked as a photographer in Hampshire. The firm of Balk & Brown operated a photographic studio at 69 Devonshire Road, Bexhill-on-Sea. It appears that Otto Brown was based at the Bexhill studio in Devonshire Road, while Leon Balk stayed in Eastbourne.

Leon Balk was living still living at 116 Langney Road, Eastbourne when in August 1906 he became a Naturalised British Citizen (Jewish Chronicle 7th September 1906, page 34). Although he was a Jew from Lithuania, Balk's place of origin is given as Russia in the published list of Naturalisations.

Around 1906, Otto Brown left Bexhill and established his own studio in Worthing at 2 Chapel Road. Leon Balk took over the Bexhill studio and remained in business at 69a Devonshire Road until 1915

[ABOVE] A portrait of Leon Balk, a photographer in Eastbourne and Bexhill during Edwardian times

Examples of the Photographic Work of Leon Balk of Bexhill (1907 to 1915 )


	[ABOVE] Portrait of three women with a baby, photographed by Leon Balk of Devonshire Road, Bexhill. Post Card Format Photograph (c1910).

Acknowledgements

Portrait of Leon Balk - Courtesy of Martin Balk, a grandson of Leon Balk. Details of Leon Balk's naturalisation taken from "Naturalisations published in the Jewish Chronicle between 1902 and 1906" extracted by Ian Melville and featured on the British -Jewry List website. Thank you Ian.

BODOM & HAWLEY

Hjalmar BODOM (born c1866, Norway)

Hjalmar Axel Bodom was born in Norway around 1866. By the late 1890s, Hjalmar Bodom was living in Kent. Towards the end of 1898, Hjalmar Bodom married Clara Alice Elizabeth Forster (born 1865, Isle of Sheppey, Sheerness, Kent) in the Medway district of Kent. Clara Forster, Hjalmar's wife, was the daughter of Susan Elizabeth Kimber (born c1841, Sheppey) and Archibald Thomas Victor Forster (born c1841, Gravesend, Kent), an Engineer Officer in the Royal Navy.

Shortly after their marriage, Hjalmar and Clara Bodom were in Tunbridge Wells, where their daughter Marguerite Catherine Bodom was born during the Fourth Quarter of 1899. When the 1901 census was taken, Hjalmar Bodom was living in Tonbridge, Kent with his wife Clara and their young daughter Greta (Marguerite). Hjalmar Bodom is described on the census return as an "Artist Photographer", aged 35. A 1903 street directory records Hjalmar A. Bodom at 30 Pembury Road, Tonbridge, Kent, but it appears that he moved to Bexhill in Sussex in the same year. Around 1903, Hjalmar Bodom entered into partnership with a photographer named Hawley. ( Two photographers with the surname of Hawley are recorded in the 1901 census - Alfred Hawley (born c1867, New Zealand), a photographer living at Alderley Edge, near Chester, and Christopher Hawley (born c1867, Warwick), a photographer based in Devon.

In 1903, Bodom & Hawley were operating a photographic studio at 3 Wilton Court, Bexhill. That same year, Hjalmar Bodom is listed in a local street directory at 11 Wickham Avenue, Bexhill. Kelly's 1905 Directory of Sussex does not mention either Hjalmar Bodom or Hawley and a photographic studio is not listed either at Wilton Court or Wickham Avenue in Bexhill.

BRIDGMAN & ROBBINS

John R. BRIDGMAN

[ABOVE] Portrait of Percy Hemery by Bridgman & Robbins of 2 Marina Arcade, Bexhill; negative number 5387 (c1910). Percy Hemery was born at Arundel, Sussex, in 1851, the son of John Emery, a Jersey sea captain who eventually became Mayor of Canterbury. Percy Emery, the subject of this photograph, was a civil servant who spent thirty years of his career in British Guiana, a British colony on the north coast of South America. This portrait was taken some time after October 1910 - the date Percy returned to England and settled in Bexhill with his wife Helen* and their baby son, John.

*Percy Hemery had married Helen Fairbairn (born 30.5.1876) in 1907.

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Bridgman & Robbins, Photographers of 2 Marina Arcade, Bexhill. This trade plate is impressed in the bottom right corner of the mount surrounding the portrait of Percy Hemery (top picture).

[ABOVE] Portrait of an unknown woman by Bridgman & Robbins of Bexhill

Bridgman & Robbins

The firm of Bridgman & Robbins established a studio in Bexhill around 1907. The Bridgman & Robbins' studio at 2 Marina Arcade, Bexhill, was previously occupied by the photographer William J. Reed. One of the partners in the firm of Bridgman & Robbins was Thomas Henry Robbins (born 1867, Devizes, Wiltshire). Thomas Robbins' business partner was probably the photographer John Robert Bridgman (1856-1924).

Thomas Henry Robbins was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, during the Second Quarter of 1867. In 1892, Thomas Henry Robbins married Blanche Brend (born 1865, Bideford, Devon).

The studio of Bridgman & Robbins at 2 Marina Arcade, Bexhill was in business from around 1907 until 1911.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Richard Hemery for providing the portrait of Percy Hemery by Bridgman & Robbins. Richard Hemery is the grandson of Percy Hemery.

Otto BROWN ( born 1883, Long Sutton, Somerset )

Otto Brown was born around 1882 in Long Sutton, Somerset, the second son of Sarah and Charles Brown, a beer seller and grocer. Charles Brown, Otto's father, was born in Long Sutton in 1839. When the 1881 census was taken, Charles Brown was an unmarried man of forty-one, earning a living by selling beer from a licensed, "outdoor" beer house. ( Brown's business was described as an "Outdoor Licensed Beer House" because the beer had to be "consumed off the premises"). Charles Brown also sold groceries from his shop and in the commercial listings in local trade directories, he is entered as a "grocer & beer retailer". Shortly after the 1881 census was taken, Charles Brown married Sarah, a local woman in her early twenties. The couple's first child, Charles Brown junior, was born around 1881. Otto Brown was born in the village of Long Sutton the following year. Charles and Sarah Brown's third child, Herbert Brown, was born in the village in 1884 [ birth registered in the Langport district of Somerset during 2nd Quarter of 1884]. Two more boys were born in Long Sutton before the Brown family moved to Pokesdown in Hampshire - Alwyne Duncan Brown (born 1889, Long Sutton) and George Leonard Brown (born 1893, Long Sutton). By 1897, Charles Brown and his family had left Long Sutton.
The 1901 census records Charles Brown and his family at 25 Wickham Road, Pokesdown, near Christchurch in Hampshire. Sixty-one year old Charles Brown was now employed as a "Gardener (Domestic)". Otto Brown is described on the census return as an "Artist & Photographer", aged 18. The census enumerator notes that Otto Brown was a self-employed photographer ("own account") and was working from the home address in Wickham Road.

By the Spring of 1905, Otto Brown was in Sussex. (Otto's marriage was registered in the Steyning district of Sussex during the 2nd Quarter of 1905). Around 1905, Otto Brown entered into a business partnership with Leon Balk (born 1878, Taurage, Lithuania), a photographer who had been operating a photographic studio in Eastbourne, Sussex, since 1903. The firm of Balk & Brown operated at studio at 116 Langney Road, Eastbourne and another at 69 Devonshire Road, Bexhill-on-Sea. It appears that Otto Brown was based at the Bexhill studio in Devonshire Road, while Leon Balk remained in Eastbourne. Around 1906, Otto Brown left Bexhill and established his own studio at 2 Chapel Road, Worthing. Leon Balk took over the Bexhill studio previously run by Brown when the partnership was dissolved in 1906 and he remained in business at 69a Devonshire Road until 1915. (See Leon Balk)

[ABOVE] Carte-de-visite portrait of a woman taken at the studio of Otto Brown, 2 Chapel Road, Worthing (c1907). Between 1905 and 1906, Otto Brown was based at the Balk & Brown studio at 69 Devonshire Road, Bexhill-on-Sea.

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