Now that I’m not currently working on getting a new book out, I, for the
first time in many years, have time to … well, indulge the odd lazy, nineteenth-century
fancy. If something catches my eye as I waddle round my literary domain, I can spend
a day or two looking into it – well, you’ve seen my recent posts. A piece of
music, a book … they all have some sort of a tale to tell, and they can all
start me off on a little adventure.
Today it was a photo. This morning I was strolling through the pages and
pages of cartes de visite to be found on eBay, pictures of places and people of
other times. More often than not, insofar as the people are concerned, unknown,
unidentified, nameless. I’m not looking to buy these days, but I like to look.
And this one took my fancy. A little boy in his best Sunday suit and his somewhat
overweight sister from Melbourne, Australia.
John Gaul was born in Alvar, Banffshire, Scotland in 1831, the second
son in the family of maltman, John Gaul, and his wife née Ann MacIntosh. We can
see him, in the 1851 census, working as a cabinet-maker in Banff. On 8 May
1857, he married Miss Jessie Gossip, soon after, their first son, Joseph, was
born, and the year after they left Liverpool for Australia and a new life. On
the ship’s manifest, John was listed as ‘labourer’, but he clearly had other
ideas. They arrived in Melbourne 29 April 1860, and within no time John, ‘artist’,
had set up a pianoforte tuning and accordion business, then a studio of ‘The
Photographic Art’ at 112 Douglas Parade. And 22 July Jessie gave birth to a
second son, Alexander William, ‘at the home of Captain [Joseph] Dalgarno’. 112
Douglas Parade. The child died at 18 months. But there were two more to come. Finally,
in 1866, John Gaul upmarketed. He moved his studio 95 Swanston Street, the address
shown on our photographs. But he didn’t stay there for long. By the next year,
he had shifted to larger premises in the same street. So, we can date our
photos precisely to 1866.
John too went to New Zealand. With a new wife, Margaret née Dillon. And
presumably at least some of his three surviving children. He died there, in
Colombo Street, Christchurch, 27 November 1876 – 25km from where I sit now -- where
he had established a studio. It was believed to be suicide.
So, poor John Gaul ‘artist’ apparently didn’t have a very long career as
a Melburnian photographer. Five years or so in Williamstown, one year of glory
at no 95, and then a bit longer down the road. But he took some photos there which
have survived. The State Library of Victoria has a handful. And then there are
these. I guess these folk went back to England, and took their Melburnian
photos with them …
I should dearly love to know who they were. Dad would make a lovely
understudy for Abe Lincoln.
PS I find that someone else has delved into the Gauls and in considerably
more detail than I, and with a fine selection of his Christchurch photographs:
http://canterburyphotography.blogspot.co.nz/2008/09/gauls-portrait-rooms-christchurch.html
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