Album Portraits

There are quite a few Sankey photographs where we only have the album print and no negative. 3266 and 3267 here are two such examples. They are catalogued as Mr Ramsay's employees and are seen here posed in front of Abbey Road Methodist Church around 1910. Who was Mr Ramsay? There was a well known decorator, plumber, electrical business established in 1874 in Barrow by a William Ramsay. He was responsible for the renovations at the Coliseum in 1925 for example, so maybe they are his employees.

Another selection of album pictures for which we have no negatives. An unknown wedding group and four pictures of Argentine sailors from the Chaco, not a Barrow built ship as far as I can find.

A whole album page of sailors and staff from the ship Chaco. The number of photographs of Chaco crew suggests that they were part of a commission for the Sankey photographers.

A whole album page of sailors and staff from the ship Chaco. One photo of a young looking Winston Churchill coming ashore for one of his visits to Barrow in his capacity as First Lord of the Admiralty, either on 25th September 1912 or 8th September 1913.

Some famous First World War people pictured here: Lord Kitchener, Paget, Smith-Dorrien, Sir Ian Hamilton and Sir John French. These are most likely to be pictures of pictures rather than posed originals. Also, there are two pictures are of the interior of Barrow Railway Station, and two of an early wrecked car.

Mrs Annie Fisher was a Sankey before marriage, and some of these photographs show the Fisher family and children. One poor quality photo shows a man wearing a gas mask. We don't have the negatives for any of these pictures.

Half of these pictures only exist in album form, there are no negatives for them in the collection. There is a poignancy to the images of the man standing with another, who is dressed in his sailor's uniform. Are they related? Did one go to war while the other stayed to do work in a 'reserved occupation'; the term given to those whose skills were needed for the war effort in the shiypard or a munitiions factory. The right hand pictures were taken at the tram depot in Barrow.

An example of how the Sankeys could cut out a portrait from a larger photograph. The top right hand image has had the surroundings of a Mr Routledge scraped off the glass plate to produce the photo on the left hand page at the bottom right. This would take only a couple of seconds work (and not be destructive) in this age of Photoshop, but doing this took some work in the early 20th century - and you couldn't go back to the original image as the process would destroy it.

Some formal portraits on these pages. The photograph bottom left is titled Shell Girls. When lots of men working age were sent to fight in the war in 1914, Vickers took on a large number of women to work in the Shell Shop, amongst other places. There are a number of photographs of these women at work in the Sankey collection. This looks to be a photograph of some of these women posed especially. The bottom two photographs on the right hand page show a Miss Hammond and a Mr and Mrs Hammond.

Another page of formal portraits. The people depicted include a young Mr Ashe, Mr and Mrs Beuglass, The Hull twins and boy, Mrs Whitehouse, Mrs Pass in a small frame suggesting that this picture was not taken by a Sankey. There's also Adjutant Mc Dougall and family, and a Mr and Mrs Melville in their garden. The last photograph on the page immortalises the Sankeys' pet rabbit - name unknown.

Half a dozen photographs taken on board a Furness Railway Steamer The Lady Moyra. The first two show Messrs Whitehouse and Newsome. The next one is Captain Ashcroft and Mrs Haines. The second picture on the right hand page shows Captain Ashcroft with Mr Sankey. The last two are of the child of the purser a Mr Brown.

One very astute business idea used by the Sankey photographers was to travel one way on a steamer say to Fleetwood, taking photographs on the way out. These would be developed and printed whilst the travellers were ashore, and then sold on the way back. Occasionally the crew would be photographed too as in the example bottom left dated 26 December 1912. Very few negatives survive for these as the glass plates were cleaned off, recoated and reused.

Two pages of posed photographs of Barrow Rugby players, mostly with names and playing positions.

A loose page of photographs taken aboard a Furness Railway steamer; names unknown.

A page of Sankey family photographs taken at 1 Green Cottages, Torver. The top right picture shows - Edward Snr, Eric Sankey (grandson in front), Mary Sankey Hull, Isabella Sankey (seated), Ellen Rigg (née Sankey), John Thomas Fisher, Catherine Ann Sankey, Raymond Sankey and Annie Fisher (née Sankey).

A page of formal portraits of mainly Salvation Army juniors taken on 10 April 1914, likley taken outside Barrow Town Hall.

The left hand page shows photographs of the crew of HMS Electra on board the ship, and submarine C22. The right hand page shows a few different ships including the launch of HMS Vanguard on the 22 February 1909. There are many launch photographs in the Sankey collection.

Some photographs from further afield - on the left Cleveleys (Lasncashire), and on the right St Bees (Cumberland) for the unveiling of the war memorial in 1921.

Two pages of mainly posed photographs of St Bees current pupils, and 'Old Boys'. Probably taken on the occasion of the unveiling of the war memorial in February 1921.