Hastings - Boyd

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Professional Photographers in Hastings ( B )

  Harry Bartram BOYD (1868-1954)

 

Henry (Harry) Bartram BOYD ( born 1868, Holloway, North London - died 1954, Rochford, Essex)

Photographer active in Hastings between 1899 and 1910

[ABOVE] Harry Bartram Boyd photographed in 1914.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Dee Martin

Henry (Harry) Bartram Boyd was born in Holloway, North London during the 3rd Quarter of 1868, the third child of William Thomas Boyd (born 1841 London) and Eliza Matilda Bartram (born 1840, Kingsland, East London).

William Thomas Boyd married Eliza Matilda Bartram in the East London district of Shoreditch in 1860.

When the 1881 census was taken, Harry was living with his parents and six siblings at 97 Tiverton Road, Tottenham, London. On the census return, William Thomas Boyd is described as a "Printers' Roller Maker", aged 40. In 1881, only William and Matilda Boyd's eldest son, William Frederick Boyd (born 1865, Holloway, North London) was old enough to work. William Boyd junior is described on the census return as a fifteen year old "Weaver". William Boyd junior later found employment as an upholsterer and two of his younger brothers, Arthur Alfred Boyd (born 1871, Holloway, London) and Albert Boyd (born 1875, Highbury, London) went to work for the General Post Office, but Harry Bartram Boyd and his younger brother Bertie John Boyd were destined to become professional photographers.

 
 
 
William Thomas Boyd (born 1841, London), Harry Bartram Boyd's father. Harry Bartram Boyd's mother Mrs Eliza M. Boyd (formerly Eliza Matilda Bartram)

 The Family of William and Eliza Boyd

A William Thomas BOYD born 1841, London, Middlesex
B Eliza Matilda BOYD born 1840, Kingsland, London - died 1910
1 Eliza Matilda BOYD born 1861, St Luke's, London
2 William Frederick BOYD born 1865, Holloway, N. London
3 Harry Bartram BOYD* born 1868, Holloway, N. London
4 Arthur Alfred BOYD born 1871, Holloway, N. London
5 Mary Ann BOYD born 1873, Highbury, N. London
6 Albert BOYD born 1875, Highbury, N. London
7 Bertie John BOYD* born 1877, Highbury, N. London
8 Frederick Stanley BOYD born 1883, Edmonton, N. London
* Harry Bartram Boyd and Bertie John Boyd both became professional photographers in adult life.

Portraits of William Thomas Boyd and Eliza Matilda Boyd: Courtesy of Stephen Taylor

 
   

Harry Boyd's Marriage and Children

During the 2nd Quarter of 1888, nineteen year old Harry Bartram Boyd married Caroline Emma Gorniot (born 1869, Holborn, London - died 1940). Caroline Gorniot was the daughter of Emma Ludovina Collins (1842-1889) and Arthur Lucien Gorniot (c1844-1899), a London preacher of French origin.

Records show that Harry and Caroline Boyd produced at least five children between 1888 and 1900 - Martha Caroline Boyd - known as "Dolly" - (born 1889, Islington), Maud Emma Boyd (born 1890, Islington - birth registered during the Fourth Quarter of 1890), Harry Arnold Boyd (born 1894, Hoxton, London - birth registered during the Third Quarter of 1894 in Shoreditch, London), May Boyd (born c.1898, City Road, London) and Lily Ellen Boyd (born 1900, City Road, London - birth registered in Holborn District during the Fourth Quarter of 1900). It is known for certain that three of these children - Martha Caroline ("Dolly), Maud and Harry Boyd junior - reached adulthood and eventually married and had children of their own.

 

Harry Boyd - Photographer in Hastings

By 1899, Harry Bartram Boyd was living and working in the Sussex seaside resort of Hastings.  Around 1899, Harry Boyd took over Richard Hill's photographic studio at 52 High Street, Hastings. By 1901, Boyd had moved to a studio at 115 High Street, Hastings.( The photographer George Talma had worked from 115 High Street from 1896 to 1899 and by 1900, the studio at 115 High Street was occupied by the photographer J. D. Ablett ).

When the 1901 Census was taken, Harry B. Boyd was living at 115 High Street, Hastings with two of his children - six year old Harry Boyd junior and Maud Boyd, aged 10. Mrs Caroline Boyd, Harry Boyd's estranged wife, was working as a laundress and living in West Ham, in the East End of London, with her three daughters, Martha Caroline ("Dolly"), May and Lily. Harry Boyd had apparently entered into a relationship with his servant Alice Eliza Moss (born 1879, Stepney, East London ) and in the September quarter of 1900, in Hastings, she had given birth to a child named Alice Boyd Moss. At the time of the 1901 Census, Harry Boyd is recorded as a self-employed photographer and is shown living at 115 High Street, Hastings with his daughter Maud, his son Harry junior, twenty-one year Alice Moss, and her daughter, seven month old Alice. Also living at 115 High Street, Hastings, was Harry Boyd's assistant, thirty-four year old photographer, Harry John French ( born 1867, Hastings), his wife Mildred, and their six year old son, Howard.

From 1903, Harry Boyd was operating more than one studio in Hastings. By 1905, Harry Boyd had a studio at 115 High Street in the Old Town area of Hastings and another at 21 White Rock on Hastings' seafront. By 1906, the studios went under the name of Boyd & Co. and Harry Boyd was operating three separate studios in Hastings - one at his home at 115 High Street, a second at 64 High Street and a third at 194 Queens Road, Hastings. Around 1907, Harry Boyd closed the studio at 115 High Street, but the photographers he employed continued to take portraits at Boyd's two other premises at 64 High Street and 194 Queens Road, Hastings. In 1908, Arthur Herbert Malins (born c1886, Hastings), Boyd's former studio manager, took control of the studio at 194 Queens Road, Hastings.

Harry Boyd moved back to London around 1904 and by 1910 he had sold both of his Hastings studios. During the first decade of the century, Harry Boyd ran studios in the Canning Town area of East London. Some time between 1910 and 1914, Harry Boyd established a new studio at 283 Camberwell Road in South-East London. By 1917, Harry Boyd had moved his studio to 34 Battersea Park Road, London. He is still recorded at this studio address in 1918. Boyd might have kept some property or business interests in Hastings, as his son, Harry Arnold Boyd later lived in Hastings and established his own photographic studio in the area after 1931. Harry Boyd junior's son Harry Gifford Leonard Boyd, known as Gifford Boyd (1917-2004) also worked as a photographer in Hastings in the period after the Second World War.

[ABOVE] High Street, Hastings (1911). No 52 High Street, the flint-faced building at the extreme right of this photograph, was the location of Harry Boyd's first photographic studio in Hastings.

[ Photo by F. J. Parsons, 1911 ]

 

 

 Examples of the Photographic Work of Harry Bartram Boyd of Hastings  - 1899 to 1910

[ABOVE] Designs from the backs of two cabinet  portrait photographs produced by Harry Boyd, Artist Photographer of 115 High Street, Old Town, Hastings (c1902).

 

Carte-de-Visite Portraits

[ABOVE] Portrait of a Young Man, photographed by Harry Boyd of 52 High Street, Hastings. Carte-de-visite Portrait. Negative No. 4519 (c1900).

[ABOVE] Portrait of a Girl holding an Oriental Fan,  photographed by Harry Boyd of 115 High Street, Hastings. Carte-de-visite portrait. Negative No 3052. (c1903)

[ABOVE] Portrait of a Man holding a walking cane, photographed by Harry Boyd of 52 High Street, Hastings. Carte-de-visite Portrait. Negative No. 9371 (c1901).

 

Cabinet Portraits

[ABOVE] Portrait of a Bearded Man, photographed by H. B. Boyd of 52 High Street, Hastings. Cabinet portrait.. Negative No. 4794.( c1900)

[ABOVE] Portrait of a Young Woman, photographed by Harry Boyd of 115 High Street, Hastings. Cabinet portrait.. Negative No. 5287.(c1902)

 

To view a selection of photographic portraits by Harry Bartram Boyd of Hastings, click on the link below:

Gallery of Portraits by Harry Bartram Boyd

   

Post-Card Portraits

Advertisement and Prices

[ABOVE] Portrait of a Married Couple,  photographed at the studio of Harry Boyd, (64) High Street, Hastings. Post Card  (c1907).

[ABOVE] Portrait of Two Women,  photographed at the studio of Boyd & Co., 194 Queens Road, Hastings. Post Card  (c1908).

[ABOVE] An advertisement for Harry Boyd's photographic studio at 115  High Street, Hastings. published in the Hastings & St Leonards Weekly Mail and Times (14th June, 1902)

Formats and Prices

During his time in Hastings, Harry Boyd produced photographic portraits in a range of formats and sizes, ranging from framed enlargements measuring 12 inches by 10 inches to the tiny Midget Portrait ( 2.5 inches x 1.5 inches). Prices corresponded to size. Cartes-de-visite were priced at 2s 9d per dozen, while 12 Cabinet Portraits would cost 6s 9d. The cheapest format was the Midget Portrait. A dozen Midget photographs could be purchased for one shilling.

[RIGHT] A Midget Portrait of a young lady wearing in a fancy hat, photographed at the studio of Harry Boyd at 115 High Street, Hastings (c1902)

 

Harry Boyd and his family after 1910

[ABOVE] A group portrait of three generations of the Boyd Family (1914). Sitting on the left is the photographer Harry Bartram Boyd (born 1868, Holloway, London). Standing in the middle, wearing his naval uniform, is Harry's son, Harry Arnold Boyd (born 1894, Hoxton, London). Seated on the right is William Thomas Boyd (born 1841, London), Harry Bartram Boyd's father. This postcard format photograph was taken in March 1914, the same year that Harry Boyd junior went off to serve in the First World War.

[Photo: Courtesy of  Dee Martin]

 

[ABOVE] A portrait of Bertie John Boyd (born 1877, Highbury, London), the younger brother of  photographer Harry Bartram Boyd. By 1914, Bertie John Boyd was working as a professional photographer, operating a studio at 394 Harrow Road, West London.

[Photo: Courtesy of Stephen Taylor]

It appears that around 1904, Harry Bartram Boyd had expanded his photography business by opening branches in London. Some time around 1910, Harry Bartram Boyd established a new photographic portrait studio at 283 Camberwell Road in South-East London. Leaving his London studio in the hands of a relative, Harry Bartram Boyd moved to Tiptree in Essex, where he opened The West End Photographic Studio.

When the 1911 census was taken, Harry Bartram Boyd was living at The Studio, West End, Tiptree, Essex with Alice Moss and their two children, ten year old Hetty Boyd (whose birth had been registered under the name of "Alice Boyd Moss" in Hastings in 1900) and Gladys Evelyn Boyd (born 1904, Waterloo, London). On the census return, Harry Bartram Boyd gives his occupation as "Photographer", while his partner Alice Moss is described as "Assisting in Business". Tiptree is a village in Essex, about 10 miles south-east of Colchester. In 1911, Tiptree had a population of 1,272. It is difficult to see how Harry Boyd and Alice Moss could build up a thriving photography business in Tiptree, an Essex village which has a relatively small population and, compared to his previous location in the seaside holiday resort of Hastings, hardly any seasonal visitors. Not surprisingly, Harry Boyd soon returned to London. In the Trades Section of Kelly's Post Office London Directory of 1914, Harry Boyd is recorded as a photographer at 283 Camberwell Road. S. E. London and his younger brother, Bertie John Boyd is listed as a photographer at 394 Harrow Road, W. London.

By 1917, Harry Boyd was the proprietor of a studio at 34 Battersea Park Road, London. He is still recorded as the owner of this studio in a trade directory of 1918, but by this date Harry Boyd and his son, Harry Arnold Boyd, seem to have returned to Hastings.

In 1911, at Woolwich, Harry Bartram Boyd's daughter Maud Emma Boyd married William Froggett and went on to have five children - Eric William (born 1912, Amesbury, Wiltshire), Irene (born 1914, Colchester, Essex), Barbara Veronica (born 1916, Poplar, London), Leonard (born 1917, South Stoneham, Hampshire) and Norman Malcolm Froggett (born 1924, Prestwich, Manchester). Martha Caroline (Dolly) Boyd married Horace Keeble in Stepney in 1915. Mrs 'Dolly' Keeble (nee Boyd) became the mother of two children - Harry Keeble (born 1916, Woolwich) and Winifred Keeble (born 1921, Greenwich).

In 1915, Harry's son, Harry Arnold Boyd married Kathleen Arden [marriage registered in Hastings during the 4th Quarter of 1915]. Harry and Kathleen had two children - Harry Gifford Leonard Boyd (born 1917) and Kitty Victoria Boyd (born 1919, Hastings). For a time, Harry Arnold Boyd ran the Queens Head public house in Ore, near Hastings. Harry Boyd junior worked as a licensed publican until 1931, when he set himself up as a photographer at 3 Bexhill Road, St. Leonards-on-Sea, near Hastings. Harry Boyd junior later opened a second studio at 36-37 George Street, in the Old Town area of Hastings. Harry Arnold Boyd operated as a professional photographer in Hastings and St Leonards until at least the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Harry Boyd junior was assisted in his photography business by his wife Kathleen and his daughter Kitty, who was engaged in hand-colouring the black & white photographs. In 1944, Kitty Boyd married Leslie Musgrove in Hastings. Harry Arnold Boyd appears to have left Hastings during the early years of the war. Harry's wife, Kathleen Boyd, took over the  running of the Boyd's photography business, but she died in 1944. In 1942, Harry Arnold Boyd had married Irene ("Renee") Player in Birmingham and eventually settled in St. Austell in Cornwall, where Harry worked as an artist. Harry Boyd junior died in Honiton, Devon on 26th May 1968, aged 74.

Harry Boyd junior's son, Harry Gifford Leonard Boyd (known as Gifford Boyd) had also been trained as a photographer and, after he returned from military service in the Second World War, Gifford resumed the family's photography business. In 1945, Gifford Boyd had married Mary Hill and in May 1947 he became the father of a son named Glynn Boyd. Gifford Boyd established a photographic studio in Robertson Street, Hastings. Gifford Boyd's son, Glynn Boyd, also became a keen photographer and was producing portraits and wedding photographs in recent times.

 Harry Bartram Boyd died in the Essex district of Rochford during the 1st Quarter of 1954 at the age of 85.

 

[ABOVE, LEFT] A portrait of  Harry Bartram Boyd in old age, a photograph taken after he had retired as a professional photographer.
[ABOVE, RIGHT] A portrait of  Harry B. Boyd's grand-daughter  Kitty Victoria Boyd (1919-1999). Kitty was the daughter of Harry Arnold Boyd, who operated as a professional photographer in Hastings and St. Leonards between 1931 and 1940. This portrait was taken in 1937 when Kitty Boyd was eighteen years of age and working as an assistant in her father's photography business. This photographic portrait carries the studio name address of her father, but was actually taken by her brother (Harry) Gifford Boyd in Boyd's George Street studio.

 [Photos: Courtesy of  Dee Martin]

 

Cabinet Portraits produced by Bertie Boyd and Harry Boyd in their Canning Town Studios

[ABOVE] Bertie Boyd's portrait of his parents, William and Eliza Boyd. This cabinet portrait was taken at Bertie Boyd's  studio at 95 Ford's Park Road, Canning Town, East London. [ABOVE] Cabinet Portrait of an Unknown Man, photographed at Harry Boyd's East London studio at 85 Ford's Park Road, Canning Town.

Cabinet Card Portrait of William Thomas Boyd and Eliza Matilda Boyd (top left): Courtesy of Stephen Taylor

 
[ABOVE] A postcard portrait taken around 1916, showing the London photographer Bertie John Boyd (born 1877, Highbury, London) with his daughter Florence Bertha Boyd (born 1897, Plaistow, Essex) and, seated on the right, his wife Mrs Florence Boyd (born 1877, Canning Town).

 Bertie John Boyd - Photographer and younger brother of Harry Bertram Boyd

Bertie John Boyd was born in Highbury, North London, in 1877, the second youngest son of Eliza and William Thomas Boyd (born 1841 London), a "Printers' Roller Maker". During the 1st Quarter of 1897, in the North London district of Edmonton, Bertie John Boyd married Florence Erskine (born 1877, Canning Town, East London), the daughter of Mary and Robert Erskine, a "Ship Smith" of Canning Town. Before the end of the year, Bertie Boyd's wife gave birth to a baby daughter named Florence Bertha Boyd. [The birth of Florence Bertha Boyd was registered in the East London district of West Ham during the 3rd Quarter of 1897].

When the census was taken on 31st March 1901, Bertie John Boyd was employed as a metal stereotype worker, but when the census was taken a decade later, he was working as a photographer. The 1911 census return records thirty-three year old Bertie John Boyd residing with his wife Florence and their 13 year old daughter at 398 Harrow Road, Paddington, London. At this date, Bertie John Boyd was operating a photographic studio in Harrow Road. The Trades Section of Kelly's Post Office London Directory of 1914 lists Bertie John Boyd as a professional photographer at 394 Harrow Road, West London.

Bertie John Boyd was the younger brother of the photographer Harry Bartram Boyd (born 1868, Holloway, Islington) who operated photographic portrait studios in Hastings, London and Essex in the years between 1899 and 1918. It appears that Bertie Boyd and his family helped manage Harry Boyd's branch studios in London. Stephen Taylor, Bertie Boyd's great grandson, reports that Bertie Boyd's daughter, Florence Bertha Boyd (born 1897, Plaistow, East London) was in charge of Harry Boyd's photographic portrait studio at 34 Battersea Park Road, London between 1917 and 1918.

Stephen Taylor, Bertie Boyd's great grandson, notes that the firm of Boyd & Co. operated studios at various business addresses up until 1920. Stephen Taylor has evidence of Boyd studios at the following London addresses: 85 & 95 Fords Park Road, Canning Town, East London; 394 & 398 Harrow Rd, Paddington, West London; 43 Plashnet Lane, Upton Park, East London; 89 Freemasons Road, Canning Town and 4 Battersea Park Road, London. Stephen Taylor adds that Boyd "was forever dashing off to start some new enterprise, leaving a hapless relative to run the last operation".

In 1917, Bertie Boyd's daughter Florence Bertha Boyd (born 1897) married Reginald Frederick Hollyer (born 1897, Walthamstow, Essex) in the district of West Ham. When Mrs Florence Hollyer gave birth to her child, Regina Hollyer, the following year, she and her husband were living in the same building as Harry Boyd's photographic studio at 34 Battersea Park Road, West London.

[ABOVE] Bertie John Boyd and his brother Harry Bertram Boyd listed as professional  photographers in Kelly's Post Office London Directory of 1914. Bertie John Boyd is recorded as a photographer at 394 Harrow Road, West London. [ABOVE] Harry Boyd & Co.  listed as a firm of photographers at 34 Battersea Park Road, West London in the 1918 edition of Kelly's Post Office London County Suburbs Directory. In 1918, Boyd & Co.'s studio at 34 Battersea Park Road was occupied by Mrs Florence Hollyer, the married  daughter of Bertie John Boyd.
   

Members of Harry Boyd's family operated photographic studios in the Sussex seaside resort of Hastings during the 1930s and 1940s. Bertie John Boyd died in Hastings in 1951 at the age of 73.

[ABOVE] Bertie John Boyd and his brother Harry Bertram Boyd listed as professional  photographers in Kelly's Post Office London Directory of 1914.
[LEFT] Mrs Florence Boyd, the wife of the London photographer Bertie John Boyd (c1912). Florence Erskine (sometimes spelt Irskine) was born near the Custom House in Canning Town, East London in 1877.  In 1897, twenty year old Florence Erskine married Bertie John Boyd in Edmonton. Later that year in Plaistow, East London, Florence gave birth to her only child Florence Bertha Boyd.
[ABOVE] The trade plate of Harry Boyd & Co. from Boyd's branch at 85 Fords Park Road, Canning Town, East London (c1910)

[ABOVE] Florence Bertha Boyd, the daughter of Bertie John Boyd, pictured with her husband Reg Hollyer and their daughter Regina Hollyer in 1918. Two years after this photograph was taken, Reg and Florence Hollyer emigrated to the Cape in South Africa.

All photographs in this panel are courtesy of Stephen Taylor

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & SOURCES

Thanks to Denise ("Dee") Boyd Martin, the great, grand-daughter of Harry Bartram Boyd and Kylie Barnes, the great, grand-daughter of Maud Emma Boyd, one of Harry Bartram Boyd's daughters, for supplying family history material for this webpage. I am also grateful to Dee Martin for providing the Boyd Family photographs which appear on this page. Thanks also to Norman Froggett  who kindly provided details of the marriage and children of Maud Emma Boyd, Harry Bartram Boyd's daughter. I am grateful to Stephen Taylor, the great grandson of Bertie John Boyd, for providing family photographs and information about Harry Boyd's younger brother. Stephen Taylor's grandmother was Florence Bertha Boyd, the daughter of the photographer Bertie John Boyd.

SOURCES : Trade Directories : Kelly's P.O. Directory for Sussex, 1903, 1905, 1907 & 1909; Pike's Hastings & St. Leonards Directory for 1907; London Post Office Directory for London for 1914, 1917 & 1918. Census Returns: 1881, 1901 & 1911. Denise Boyd Martin, Kylie Barnes, Norman Froggett and Stephen Taylor.

Click here to go to A History of Professional Photography in Hastings (1849-1910)

 

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