Category: seated

ephemera #3

Undated portrait of John William Brunton by photographer James Hertz of 1 Lumb Lane, Bradford, likely taken in the 1860s.

Undated portrait of John William Brunton by photographers A.E. & C. Cox of near St. George’s Hall, Bradford.

Undated portrait by photographers Marchbank & Harland of Hustlergate, Bradford. The photograph is captioned “Mr. & Mrs. Brunton” and is assumed to be John William’s parents, William Brunton and his wife Ruth. Someone, perhaps the photographer, has attempted to darken the appearance of the subjects’ hair with a black pen and there are multiple ink smudges on the photograph.

John William Brunton was born on 12 April 1854 in Horton, Bradford, Yorkshire, the son of joiner William Brunton and his wife Ruth (née Robertshaw). He was baptised on 5 July 1854 at Bradford Cathedral.
The 1871 Census shows him aged 16 and working as an apprentice joiner, presumably to his father. The family were residing at 2 West Grove Street in the St. Thomas district of Bradford.

He married Ann Elizabeth Robinson in 1875. Their known children were Ruth H., William, Eleanor, and Eveline.

The 1881 and 1891 Census record him working as a “Bookkeeper in Stuff Warehouse” and “Builder’s Clerk” respectively, residing at 2 Westgrove Street and then 3 Gaythorne Road in the Bowling district of Bradford.
By 1901, he was working for Bradford Corporation as a “Clerk to the Assistant Overseers of the Poor” and residing at 23 Horton Grange Road, Bradford. By 1911 he had been promoted to the role of Corporation Rate Collector. By now, his daughter Eleanor was employed as a bookseller’s assistant.

Ann Elizabeth Brunton died on 15 August 1923.

John William Brunton of 12 Ellercroft Terrace, Bradford, died on 9 September 1924 at 23 Waterloo Road, Wallasey, Cheshire. His estate was valued at £8,425 2s. 4.

ephemera #1

Elsie Isabel Crouch aged 16 months. Portrait by photographers Freeman & Co. of 360 George Street, Sydney, Australia, and believed to have been taken in October 1879.


Elsie was born on 5 July 1878 in Bathurst, New South Wales, the daughter of Henry Augustus Crouch (a name I suspect Roald Dahl would have cherished) and his wife Isabella (née Tennant). Henry was District Surveyor.

A trained nurse, she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service during the First World War and sailed to Egypt in August/September 1915. Six months later she travelled from Alexandria to Marseilles, France. Somewhere along the way, she met and fell in love with orthopaedic surgeon Major Denis Joseph Glissan (1889-1958) and they married in Kensington, London, on 23 November 1916. After the war, they returned to Australia.

Elsie Isabel Glissan died on 21 November 1964 and was cremated at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium.

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