I don't purposely seek out photos of folk with curious stories from ebay ... but today I hit a whammy ...!
This is Arthur Llewellyn Struvè, from near Swansea in Wales. The photo was evidently taken during his time at Pembroke College, Oxford ..
Son of Jersey civil engineer (ventilation for mining shafts) William Price Struvè and his wife Louisa, widow of a Captain Rattray in the 86th regiment.
Born 28 October 1849. Went to Oxford, became a bank clerk, while his elder brother continued the civil engineering ..
Father died at the family home Cringally 10 April 1878.
But Arthur's moment in the headlines was coming ...
Presumably for social and leisurely reasons, in July 1883, he and his mother were in Ischia, at the Hotel Piccola Sentinella in the spa town of Casamicciola. It is related that Arthur was playing the piano (the papers reported that it was Chopin's Funeral March) when the devastating earthquake struck.
Over 2000 people died, including seven visiting Britishers. William and Louisa were crushed in the falling masonry ... their ruined bodies could not be identified ... merely a piece of Louisa's patterned stocking. Amazingly, some visitors at the Piccola Sentinella survived to tell the tale ...
A soi-disant contemporary report is quoted "There was a concert in the diningroom of our hotel ... mid-season; the house was full. There came a dreadful rumbling noise. The house shook once, twice, sideways, and then came crashing down in a ruined heap. The pianist at the piano, the singer with the song on her lips, were dashed into Purgatory without an instant's warning..."
Arthur and Louisa? Sounds more likely than the Chopin for a concert ... I think the British survivors may have titivated the tale for popular consumption. The vision of a Victorian mamma with unmarried middle-aged son in tow, giving a number at a holiday hotel concert rings so true ...
Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it ... 28 July 1883.
I found this portrait on ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284711395579?hash=item424a1f20fb:g:J9IAAOSwd2Ba5dJq
Listed by the same vendor, and seemingly labelled in the same hand are two other photos ... connected? I suppose I shall have to try to find out ...
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