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Henry Thomas Edwards

postcard

Uncaptioned card, said to show the Gladstone Terrace Street Procession in Lewes Road, Brighton

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Studio photographer, Lewes Road, Brighton. When the 1891 census was held, Edwards had already set up in business as a photographer at Number 11 in Lewes Road (near The Level) and was living there with his family. The 1901 and 1911 censuses gives his address as Number 10, but Kelly's 1903 Sussex Directory lists his name against both properties, which suggests he may have used one as a studio ("The Grove Electric Light Studio") and the other as his home.

Edwards was born at Hurstpierpoint in 1857 and married Emily Jane Blackman at Brighton in 1878. She had been born in Bradford in about 1854. The couple had eight children, but four died in infancy. The survivors were Eva Kathleen Edwards, born in 1885, Daisy Eleanor Edwards, born two years later, May Edith Edwards, born in 1889 and Charles Raymond Edwards born in 1893.

The 1923 Register of Voters lists Edwards at 10 Lewes Road, but adds that his abode was in fact 38 Hampden Road. His wife and family are not recorded at either address. A Charlie Roffe shared 38 Hampden Road with Edwards. Edwards was apparently still in business in Lewes Road in the mid 1930s, although long past normal retirement age.

Edwards specialised in studio portraiture, particularly in cabinet prints and cartes de visite. He was a talented portraitist and evidently attracted a large local following. In the years leading up to the Great War he started issuing some clients with their photographs in picture postcard form. The cards are blind stamped with his name and address at the base of the pictures. Edwards sometimes worked outdoors, photographing parades and processions along Lewes Road, including the St Martin's Sunday School Parades in 1907 and 1910.

Albert Kimber, a cousin born in Croydon, lived with Edwards and his family at 10 Lewes Road. In 1901 Albert assisted with the photography, but by 1911 Eva had taken his place and Albert was working on the trams. In 1911 May had become a milliner and Raymond was a hot water fitter.

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