[ABOVE ]  A possible portrait of Edwin Cocking  (c1865). The trade plate on the reverse advertises the fact that Edwin Cocking was a Portrait Artist and a Photographer.

[ABOVE ] The business card of Mr. Edwin Cocking - Portrait Artist and  Photographer- of Queen's Road, Peckham, S. E. London.

Aubrey was an assumed surname. Edwin Aubrey was, in fact, Edwin Cocking, the son of Henry and Susannah Cocking of London. Henry Cocking, Edwin's father, was a builder. Edwin Cocking was born in 1818 in Peckham, Surrey and was baptised on 18th October 1818 at the Church of St. Giles in Camberwell.

Edwin Cocking was originally an artist and portrait painter. In the 1850s and 1860s, Edwin Cocking painted portraits and drew designs for lithographs ( see the music sheet cover design, illustrated below). The St. Edmund Hall Library in Oxford holds a self portrait by Edwin Hocking, dated 1855, which was printed and published by Day & Sons, the famous London firm of lithographers.

On 9th June 1849, Edwin Cocking married Isabella Mitchell at St Mary Magdalene Church in Peckham. On 5th July 1852, Isabella gave birth to a son, who was given the name Henry Garrett Cocking.

By the mid 1860s, Edwin Cocking had established a photographic portrait studio in Queens Road, Peckham. In the early 1870s, Edwin Cocking was assisted in the Queens Road studio by his son Henry Garrett Cocking. For a short time around 1878, the photographic studio at 57 Queens Road, Peckham went under the name of Henry Garrett Cocking.

At the time of the 1881 Census, Edwin Cocking was living at 57 Queens Road, Peckham, and is described as an "Artist - Portrait Painter", aged 62. His wife Isabella, who was born in London, gives her age as sixty-three.

[ABOVE ] Edwin Cocking's design for the front cover of the sheet music for Herman Løvenskiold's  ballet La Sylphide  ( Coloured lithograph after a drawing by Edwin Cocking )

Henry Aubrey, also known as Henry Garrett Cocking, (1852 -1894 )

Henry Garrett Cocking was born on 5th July 1852 in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, London, the son of Edwin and Isabella Cocking [see above]. Henry's birth was registered in the parish of St. Giles, Camberwell in the September Quarter of 1852.

Towards the end of 1876, Henry Garrett Cocking married Matilda Lydia Ward (born c1851, Peckham, Surrey) in the district of Camberwell. A daughter, Lydia Isabel Cocking, was born in Peckham in 1877. Around 1879, Henry Cocking and his family moved to Lee in Kent, where he established a photographic studio near Lee Bridge. A second daughter, Ada Beatrice Cocking was born in Lewisham, Lee,  towards the end of 1879. The 1881 Census return records Henry G. Cocking, his wife Lydia, and their two daughters at 26, The Parade, High Road, Lee. Henry G. Cocking is described as a photographer, aged 28. Henry Cocking was apparently a reasonably successful photographer, employing two servants in the household. An 1882 trade directory shows that Henry Garrett Cocking was running two establishments - one studio at his home on The Parade, High Road, Lee, the other at Brunswick Place in Blackheath.

When Henry Garrett Cocking settled in Horsham around 1886, he adopted the surname of Aubrey. When his father Edwin Cocking moved to Horsham, he too changed his surname to Aubrey.

[ABOVE ] Detail from the back of a carte-de-visite by Henry Aubrey displaying pictures of the medals awarded to him in the 1870s.

[ABOVE ] A carte-de-visite by Henry Aubrey dating from around 1886 when he moved from Lee to Horsham. A paper label bearing the name of Henry Aubrey and giving details of his new studio in Horsham was pasted over his former name and old studio address.

 Click here to view the photographic work of Henry Aubrey and Mrs Aubrey of Horsham

In the 1891 Census, Edwin Aubrey is shown living at 30 North Street, Horsham with his wife Isabella. The enumerator records Edwin Aubrey as a seventy-two year old artist and portrait painter. Early in 1892, Edwin Aubrey died in Horsham, aged 73.

Henry Aubrey is shown living with his wife Matilda and his two daughters at 41 West Street, Horsham, at the time of the 1891 Census. Henry Aubrey, aged 38, gives his profession as "Photographer". He apparently worked only with the assistance of his forty year old wife, Matilda. The enumerator records that Henry Aubrey was "Neither Employer nor Employed".

The Sudden Death of Henry Aubrey

By 1894, Henry Aubrey was living with his family at a house on the Crawley Road, Horsham. On the morning of Monday, 2nd July, 1894, Henry Aubrey and his wife Matilda drove to his photographic studio at 41 West Street. The 'husband and wife' team worked alongside each other at their shop in West Street. Mrs Aubrey left their business premises for a time and when she returned she was horrified to see her husband fall to the floor. Mrs Aubrey summoned help, but within minutes Henry Aubrey was dead. The cause of death was later certified as "apoplexy".

Mrs Matilda Aubrey (born c1851, Peckham, Surrey)

The photography business at 41 West Street was continued by Henry's widow Matilda Aubrey. For a few years the studio carried the name of Henry Aubrey, her late husband, but by 1902, Matilda was placing advertisements which declared "Mrs Aubrey - Portrait and Landscape Photographer- 41 West street, Horsham". Mrs Aubrey was assisted by her eldest daughter Lydia. The 1901 Census records fifty year old Matilda Aubrey as a "Photographer - own account" and twenty-three year old Lydia Aubrey* as a "Photographer's Assistant". Ada Aubrey, Lydia's younger sister, worked for the Post Office as a sorting clerk and telegraphist.

Ada Beatrice Aubrey married Frank Philps (born 1869, Dorking, Surrey), a tailor and hosier, on 21st  June 1905 in the Parish Church at Horsham. This appears to be the same year that her mother, Mrs Aubrey, gave up her photography business in West Street, Horsham. Mrs Matilda Aubrey made her last appearance in the list of professional photographers in Sussex in Kelly's Trade Directory of 1905.

* Lydia Isabel Aubrey went on to marry George Philps, (born 1874, Dorking, Surrey), the younger brother of Frank Philps, who had married her sister Ada in 1905. When the 1901 census was taken, George Philps was working as the manager of a stationery department and living in the Moss Side district of Manchester. Lydia married George Philps on 4th April 1914, and within a year the couple were expecting their first child. Sadly, the baby was stillborn and Lydia died soon after.

[ABOVE ] The design on the back of a carte-de-visite by Henry Aubrey, Photographer of 41 West street, Horsham. (c1892)

[ABOVE ]  Newspaper report of the death of Henry Aubrey. Sussex Express 7th July 1894

[ABOVE ] An advertisement for Mrs Aubrey, Portrait and Landscape Photographer, 41 West street, Horsham. Bennett's Business Directory (1902).

Acknowledgements