Louis Cesar Pierre was born in Brighton on 14th December 1860, the son of Cesar Alexandre Pierre (1822-1895) and Athenais Caroline Moulinet (1822-1884). Cesar Alexandre Pierre, who was generally known as Alexandre Pierre, was born in Paris in 1822. Alexandre and his wife Athenais, who had two daughters from a previous marriage ( Eugenie and Sidonie Adolphine the children of Emile Derviller), left France around 1852. The couple's first child, Leon Alexandre Pierre was born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands around 1853, before the family travelled on to England. By 1853 the Pierre family had settled in London, where three more children were born. In 1860, Alexandre Pierre and his family moved to Brighton, the birthplace of Louis Cesar Pierre.

Louis' father, Alexandre Pierre, established a business in the King's Road, on Brighton's fashionable seafront promenade. In trade directories for the period 1862 to 1867, Alexandre Cesar Pierre is listed as a "Surgical corset, steel petticoat & elastic stocking manufacturer" at  2 Kings Road, Brighton. Alexandre Pierre's wife Athenais established a dressmaking concern in Brighton. An 1878 trade directory records Mdme Alexandre Pierre, Dressmaker, at 2 Western Street, Brighton. Mdme Pierre was assisted in her dressmaking business by four of her daughters. In the 1881 Census, the Pierre family are recorded at 3 Western Street, Brighton. Alexandre Pierre, the head of the household is described as a "Builder", aged 58. Mdme Pierre, his wife, gives her occupation as "Dressmaker". Her daughters - Eugenie, aged 36, Alexandrine, aged 26, Mathilde, aged 19, and sixteen year old Athanais, are all described as dressmakers. Frederick Palmer Emile Derviller, the eight year old son of  Alexandre's stepdaughter Eugenie Derviller, was attending school. Alexandre Pierre's son Charles Pierre, aged 24, was working as a clerk. Twenty year old Louis Pierre gives his profession as "Photographer". The eldest son, Leon Alexandre Pierre, had left home after marrying Mary Elizabeth Walton in 1878, and at the time of the census he was working as a carpenter. ( Leon Alexandre Pierre later became a publican, managing public houses in Brighton, Cuckfield and Salvington ).

Louis Cesar Pierre - Photographer in Brighton

In the 1881 Census. Louis Pierre is recorded as a twenty year old photographer. Louis Pierre was probably employed at one of the thirty odd photographic studios operating in Brighton at that time. At least two photography businesses in Brighton  were run by Frenchmen - Louis Bertin's studio at 88 Kings Road and Monsieur Boucher's studio at 15 Kings Road, which had recently been taken over by Bernard de la Grave - and Louis' father might have secured an introduction to these fellow expatriates.

In 1883, Louis Pierre married Amelia Lavinia Graimes, a 20 year old barmaid from Poynings, Sussex.( In 1881, Amelia was working as a barmaid with her younger sister at the White Lion Hotel in Streatham, Surrey ). By 1887, Louis Pierre was the father of two young children - Edith, aged 2, and a baby named Mabel - and was running a shop at 6 Norfolk Street. Louis Pierre was probably taking photographic portraits on the shop premises at this time, and by 1889 he is listed as a professional photographer at the Norfolk Street address. The following year Louis Pierre, together with his wife and three daughters ( a third child, Beatrice, had been born in Poynings in 1888 ) moved to Horsham in West Sussex.

Louis Cesar Pierre - Photographer in Horsham

For a brief period around 1889, Louis Pierre ran a photographic studio at 30 North Street, Horsham.  By 1891, Louis Pierre had sold the studio at 30 North Street to the veteran photographer Edwin Aubrey and had taken his family to Roffey, on the outskirts of Horsham.

[ABOVE ] The trade plate of Louis C. Pierre of 6, Milthorpe Terrace, Horsham.

[ABOVE ] A family group portrait taken by Louis C. Pierre of 6, Milthorpe Terrace, Horsham. Cabinet Portrait (c1892)

[ABOVE ] The details of Louis C. Pierre and family on the 1901 Census return. Louis Pierre gave his occupation as "Wardrobe Dealer" ( i.e. second hand clothes dealer), but two years earlier  he had been working as a photographer from the Crawley Road address.

Louis Cesar Pierre - Photographer at 30 North Street, Horsham

[ABOVE ] A couple with their young baby photographed by Louis C. Pierre of 30 North Street, Horsham. Cabinet Portrait (c1889)

[ABOVE ] The trade plate of Louis C. Pierre of 30 North Street, Horsham, as shown on the reverse of a cabinet card.  (c1889)

Louis Cesar Pierre - Photographer in Roffey, Horsham (1891-1899)

 Louis Pierre would have found it difficult to make a living as a professional photographer in Brighton in the late 1880s. In 1889, when he is first entered under the heading of "Photographers" in Brighton trade directories, there were over forty photographic studios in Brighton. When the 1891 Census was taken, 176 individuals in Brighton were engaged professionally in photography. When Louis Pierre moved to Roffey around 1890, there were only three photographic studios in the nearby town of Horsham - Edwin Aubrey, who had acquired Pierre's former studio at 30 North Street, his son Henry Aubrey who worked from premises in West Street, and John Hicks, who was based at 18 Richmond Terrace in Horsham's Carfax. In 1892, Edwin Aubrey died at the age of seventy-two. Two years later, his son Henry Aubrey died from an apoplexy and his widow Matilda had to take over the running of the studio at 41 West Street.

Louis Pierre is listed solely as a photographer in Roffey's Crawley Road until 1899, but by 1901 it is clear that he could not make a living by photography alone. The 1901 Census entered Louis Pierre's occupation as "Wardrobe Dealer" - or second-hand clothes dealer - and he continued running a shop selling second-hand goods in Roffey until 1904. By 1905, Louis Pierre  had opened a second-hand furniture shop in the centre of Horsham at 44 Carfax. A 1905 trade directory lists Louis Cesar Pierre as an "Antique Furniture Dealer" in Horsham - no mention is made of his photography. In a 1910 trade directory, Pierre is listed as an "antique furniture, wardrobe & metal dealer" with two business premises, one at 44 & 44b Carfax, the other in Wittersham Road, Horsham. In Kelly's Directory of 1911, Mrs Amelia Lavinia Pierre is listed as a Fruiterer at 44b Carfax, Horsham. Louis Pierre is not listed in the directory. This could mean Louis Pierre had retired through ill health, had left Horsham or had died between 1909 and 1911. Louis's daughter, Winifred Louisa Pierre, had died in Horsham in 1910 at the age of twenty and other members of the wider Pierre family had died prematurely from tuberculosis. Louis Pierre's two sons emigrated to Canada after 1910 and both served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. When Reginald Pierre signed up to join the armed forces on 8th April 1916 , only his mother, Mrs Amelia Lavinia Pierre, with an address of Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, was given as "next of kin", which suggests Louis Pierre was deceased at that date.

[ABOVE ] Louis C. Pierre's New & Second-hand Furniture Shop at 44  Carfax, Horsham, photographed in 1908. By 1911, the shop at 44b Carfax was being run as a fruiterers by Mrs Amelia Pierre, Louis Pierre's wife. In 1911, the main shop at No 44 was occupied by George King, a butcher. By 1915, the name of Pierre had disappeared from the Horsham trade directory and Pierre's former shop was occupied by George Wilson, a bootmaker.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Jackie Knott, a descendant of Leon Alexandre Pierre, for providing details of the Pierre Family History