Hastings

Hastings - Boyd Gallery

Photographic Portraits by Harry Bartram Boyd of Hastings

Harry Bartram Boyd

(born 1868, North London)

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 and Eliza Matilda Bartram.

By 1899, Harry Boyd was running a photographic portrait studio at 52 High Street Hastings. Between 1899 and 1910, Harry Boyd operated a number of photographic studios in Hastings. Harry Boyd's studios were mainly located in the Old Town area of Hastings, primarily in the seaside town's High Street, but he also operated studios in White Rock, near Hastings Pier, and Queens Road, Hastings.

During his time in Hastings, Harry Bartram Boyd produced studio portraits in a range of formats, including cartes-de-visite, cabinet portraits, midget photos and picture post-cards. Harry Boyd left the Hastings studios in the hands of others when he moved back to London around 1904. From around 1905, Harry Boyd opened a number of studios in London, recruiting his brother and niece as studio managers. At the time of the 1911 census, Harry Boyd was living in Tiptree, Essex, and running The West End Photographic Studio.

HASTINGS STUDIOS OPERATED BY HARRY BARTRAM BOYD
	STUDIO ADDRESS	DATES ACTIVE
H. B. BOYD	52 High Street, HASTINGS	1899-1901
Harry BOYD	115 High Street, HASTINGS	1901-1907
H. BOYD	21 White Rock, HASTINGS	1903-1904
H. BOYD	21 White Rock, HASTINGS	1904-1905
H. BOYD & Co.	64b High Street, HASTINGS	1907
H. BOYD & Co.	194 Queens Road, HASTINGS	1906-1909
H. BOYD & Co.	64e High Street, HASTINGS	1908-1909
From 1904, Harry Boyd was also operating a string of photographic portrait studios in London


Carte-de-Visite Portraits by Harry Boyd

[ABOVE] Portrait of Louisa Holyer, photographed at Harry Boyd's studio at 115 High Street, Hastings. Carte-de-visite portrait. Negative No 12,855. Inscribed in pencil on the reverse "L. Holyer". (c1904). Louisa Jane Holyer (born 1883, Lydd, Kent) was the daughter of John Holyer, a beer-house keeper of Wellington Road, Hastings.	[ABOVE] Portrait of a Young Girl, photographed at Harry Boyd's studio at 52 High Street, Hastings. Carte-de-visite portrait. Negative No. 3,637. (c1900). Harry Bartram Boyd opened a photographic portrait studio at 52 High Street, Hastings around 1899. Within a couple of years, Harry Boyd was working from a studio at 115 High Street, Hastings.	[ABOVE] Portrait of a Young Boy, photographed at Harry Boyd's studio at 115 High Street, Hastings. Carte-de-visite portrait. No negative number (c1902). The reverse of this carte-de-visite portrait is printed with an elaborate trade plate advertising "*Harry Boyd, Artist Photographer, 115 High Street, Old Town, Hastings*".	[ABOVE] Portrait of Minnie Ransom, aged 24, photographed by Harry Bartram Boyd of 52 High Street, Hastings. Inscribed on the reverse of the cdv, "Minnie, June 1901". Negative No 8419. (1901). Minnie Ransom (born 1876, Hastings) was the daughter of Elizabeth Wenban and Frederick Ransom, a bank clerk. Minnie worked as an assistant in a fancy grocer's shop.


Cabinet Portraits by Harry Boyd

[ABOVE] Portrait of a Seated Man, photographed by Harry Boyd of 115 High Street, Hastings & 21 White Rock, Hastings. Cabinet portrait.. Negative No. 27,915 (c1905).	[ABOVE] Portrait of a Unknown Woman, photographed by Harry Bartram Boyd of 52 High Street, Hastings. Cabinet portrait.. Negative No. 3265 (c1900).	[ABOVE] Portrait of a Young Man, photographed by Harry Bartram Boyd of 52 High Street, Hastings. Cabinet portrait.. No negative number (c1900).

[ABOVE] Family Group, photographed by Harry Boyd of 115 High Street, Hastings. Cabinet portrait.. Negative No. 13,470 (c1903).	[ABOVE] Married Couple, photographed by Boyd & Co. of 194 Queens Road, Hastings. Cabinet portrait.. No negative number (c1907).	[ABOVE] Bride and Groom, photographed by Harry Boyd of 115 High Street, Hastings. Cabinet portrait.. Negative No. 13,396 (c1903).

Types of Photographs produced at Harry Boyd's Hastings Studios

[ABOVE] The trade plate used by Harry Bartram Boyd on cabinet portraits produced at his studio at 52 High Street, Hastings around 1900.

[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). This advertisement details the range of photographic formats available in 1902 at Harry Boyd's studio in Hastings - cabinets, cartes-de-visite, circle photos and midget portraits. A few years later, Harry Boyd began to produce portraits in the newly introduced picture postcard format.

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.

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

[ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of a young man, photographed at Harry Boyd's studio at 115 High Street, Hastings.

The Designs on the Backs of Carte-de-Visite Portraits by Harry Boyd


[ABOVE] Design taken from the back of a carte-de-visite portrait produced by Harry Boyd, Artist Photographer of 115 High Street, Old Town, Hastings (c1902).	[ABOVE] Design taken from the back of a carte-de-visite portrait produced by Harry Boyd, Artist Photographer of 115 High Street, Old Town, Hastings (c1901).	[ABOVE] Carte-de-visite portrait produced by Harry Boyd at his studio at 52 High Street, Hastings. (c1901). This carte-de-visite has a plain back.

Post Card Portraits by Harry Boyd of Hastings


[ABOVE] A postcard portrait of two women, probably a mother and her daughter, photographed at Harry Boyd's studio at 194 Queens Road, Hastings (c1907). "*H. Boyd, 194 Queen's Road, HASTINGS*" is blind-stamped in the lower right-hand corner of the photograph.	[ABOVE] A postcard portrait of one year old Thomas Evelyn Ward , photographed at the studio of Harry Boyd at 64 High Street, Hastings. The reverse of the post card is inscribed "T. E. Ward, born Oct. 27th 1906 - Photo. Nov. 1907".	[ABOVE] A postcard portrait of a woman in a conventional studio setting, photographed at the studio of Harry Boyd, High Street, Hastings (c1906). "*H. Boyd, 115 High Street, HASTINGS*" is blind-stamped in the lower right-hand corner of the photograph.

[ABOVE] A post card portrait of a married couple, photographed at the studio of Harry Boyd, High Street, Hastings (c1907). Around 1907, Harry Boyd changed his Hastings studio address from 115 High Street to 64 High Street, Hastings.

[ABOVE] The reverse of the post card portrait illustrated on the left (c1907). Produced at the studio of Harry Boyd at 64 High Street, Hastings, this post card is blind-stamped "H. Boyd, High Street, HASTINGS" on the photographic face of the card. (See Harry Boyd's blind stamps below).


[ABOVE] The trade plate "*H. Boyd, High Street, HASTINGS*" blind-stamped in the lower right-hand corner of the post-card portrait pictured on the left.	[ABOVE] The trade plate "*H. Boyd, 115 High Street, HASTINGS*" blind-stamped in the lower right-hand corner of a post-card portrait produced around 1906.

Celebrity Post Card Portraits of the actor and comedian Sid Cotterell taken at Harry Boyd's Hastings Studio

Postcard portraits of Sid Cotterell courtesy of Ken Harris

Sid Cotterell (c1877-1958) - Actor, Comedian and Music Hall Artist

Sidney H. Cotterell was an actor and comedian who performed regularly on the stages of Britain between 1900 and 1920. According to Sid Cotterell himself, this popular entertainer was born in Walsall, Staffordshire, around 1877. The 1901 census records Sid Cotterell as an "Actor", aged 24, residing at a house in Leicester. Around 1904, Sid Cotterell set up his own company of entertainers, touring the music hall theatres of London and the provinces. One of the members of his theatre company was the music hall artist Beatrice Bridger (born 1879, Lancashire) who performed under the stage name of "Trixie Holland". It appears that Sid Cotterell and Beatrice "Trixie" Bridger lived together as man and wife from around 1901, but in 1917, when Sid was aged around 40, the couple married legally. [ Marriage registered in Lambeth during the 1st Quarter of 1917]. The union of Sid and Beatrice Cotterell did not produce any children, but there is some evidence that Sid Cotterell fathered a daughter, Lilian, with Beatrice Alice Lawton, a dancer with the Tiller Girls. Sid Cotterell's career in music hall and pantomime spanned at least two decades. A surviving pantomime programme provides evidence that Sid Cotterell was performing in the music hall production of "Robinson Crusoe" at London's Elephant & Castle Theatre in 1920. Mrs Beatrice Cotterell, Sidney's wife, died in Lambeth in 1955. Sidney H. Cotterell died in his 80th year at the South Western Hospital, Stockwell, on 4th March 1958 .

[ABOVE] Harry Boyd's postcard portrait of the music hall performer Sid Cotterell in his convincing role as a female impersonator. This portrait was taken at the photographic studio of Harry Boyd at 64 High Street, Hastings around 1908 and published as a celebrity postcard shortly afterwards. The postcard has been signed in ink "Sincerely Yours ... Sid Cotterell".

[ABOVE] A postcard portrait of Sid Cotterell (c1877-1958), an actor, comedian and female impersonator, photographed at the studio of Harry Boyd at 64 High Street, Hastings (c1908). Presumably, Sid Cotterell was at the time of the photo engaged as a performer at one of the music hall theatres in Hastings - The Empire Theatre of Varieties (The Hippodrome), The Pier Pavilion or The Gaiety Theatre. The postcard has been signed "With best wishes, Yours Truly, Sid Cotterell".

[ABOVE] Sid Cotterell (c1877-1958), an actor and comedian who performed regularly on the stages of Britain between 1900 and 1920.

[ABOVE] An item published in The Billboard, an American entertainment magazine, listing Sid Cotterell and Company in "The Substitute" at the Royal Standard Music Hall, Pimlico, London (27th June 1908). The bill at the Royal Standard Theatre, (opposite Victoria Station) included the music hall singers Marguerite Broadfoote and Billy Williams.

Acknowledgements and Further Information on Sid Cotterell

I am grateful to Ken Harris for providing the two picture postcards of the actor and comedian Sid Cotterell. Ken has also kindly supplied some family history information relating to Sid Cotterell. Ken believes there is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that Sid Cotterell was his grandfather. Ken is convinced that his mother Lilian (Lillian) Lawton, who was born in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1909, was fathered by Sid Cotterell. Lilian's mother, Beatrice Alice Lawton (born 1885, Salford, Lancs) was a dancer with the Tiller Girls who performed alongside Sid Cotterell in shows in London's Drury Lane. When Sid Cotterell died in 1958, a three-storey house which Sid had owned in Lambeth was passed on to Lilian's mother, Mrs Beatrice Alice Hilton (formerly Beatrice Alice Lawton). The deeds of the house at 16 Crewdson Road, Lambeth, were handed over to Mrs Beatrice Alice Hilton under the instructions of Sid's next of kin, Mrs Christine Edna Andersen (Chrissie Cotterell), who was administering her late brother's estate. Sid Cotterell had lived with the music hall artist Beatrice Bridger (stage name "Trixie Holland") for a number of years before he married her in 1917. [ The marriage of registered in Lambeth during the 1st Quarter of 1917].When the 1911 census was taken, "Mrs Beatrice Cotterell" (Beatrice Bridger), described as a twenty-nine year old "Music Hall Artist", claimed that she had been married to her husband for ten years. At the time of the 1911 census, Beatrice was living with 15 year old Chrissie Cotterell at 16 Crewdson Road, Lambeth. At the time of the 1911 census, Sid Cotterell was not at home and the Head of Household is given as Fred Wilman (born c1879, Greengates, Bradford, Yorkshire), a professional musician and instrumentalist. On the census return, both "Mrs Beatrice Cotterell" and Chrissie Cotterell (born c1896, London) are both described as relatives of Fred Wilman and his wife Rosina Wilman. The union of Sid Cotterell and Beatrice Bridger did not produce any children and so his property passed to Christine 'Chrissie' Cotterell his next of kin. Chrissie Cotterell (Mrs Christine Edna Andersen) must have been aware of her late brother's relationship with Beatrice Alice Lawton and in May 1958 she instructed a firm of solicitors to pass on the deeds of Sid Cotterell's house in Lambeth to Beatrice.

To read a detailed account of the life and career of the photographer Harry Bartram Boyd, click on the link below:

Harry Bertram Boyd - Professional Photographer of Hastings

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