No 11 Platoon, The Inns of Court, Berkhamsted, in 1916

The Inns of Court - No 11 Platoon - in Berkhamsted in 1916

Military

Inns of Court

As part of my contribution to remembering those who gave their lives in the First World War I have added another picture of the Inns of Court at Berkhamsted, taken by J. T. Newman. It was sent to a Mr & Mrs Bond, Bute Court, Torquay, Devon on 15th April, 1916 and reads:

This is the famous no. 11 Platoon with which I have drilled, grubbed, marched and slept for the last four months. Yesterday I heard that I had been put in a senior section and platoon - No 1 Sec. & No. 9 Plt. so on Monday I shall be with a fresh set of fellows providing I don't receive the blue form back by tomorrow.  If I don't receive it by Tuesday I shall be delayed at least a month from obtaining my commission so please return it as soon as poss. woud you?

Best Love    J.

I have not been able to identify the writer, but if your ancestor was stationed at Berkhamsted at about this date you might be able to recognise them if you look at the larger image.

Baron Rothschild's Staghounds - Pictures by J T Newman

Hunting

Lord Rothchild's Staghounds on the Chiltern Hills

I have updated the page on Hunting in Hertfordshire by adding four post cards, taken by the photographer J. T. Newman of Berkhamsted. They show the staghounds run by Baron Rothschild of Tring Park. All were published in about 1905. Interestingly one was published by the national post card publisher, Valentine, in their "hunting series".

Old Family Photos can tell a story

About a month ago Barbara contacted me about a collection of old family pictures, many taken by J. T. Newman of Berkhamsted. She then sent me digitally copies of some of the photographs - including the backs where relevant. 

I have now sorted them out - and they provide some useful information relating to the the Piggott photographers, and also the formats of pictures taken by James Newman. The family pictures, with date information is on the Newman CDV & Newman Family pages.

This photograph of the Biggs family was dated to approximately 1905 when it was realized that the "Pollie" referred to on the backs of some of the photographs was Mary Biggs - "Polly" being a common nickname for "Mary". I then found the marriage to Alfred Bernhard Cooper - and the children (apart from the infant) were found in the 1901 Scotland census. A check with the Scotland births for the infant should tighten up the date more accurately. This not only fills in details of the family but also helps to date the type of mount J T Newman - which could make dating other photographs easier.

J. T. Newman - an important Berkhamsted Photographer

Barbara contacted me about some old family photographs by James Thomas Newman, of his family and possible relatives, including some by a photographer called Piggott. I had been planning to update the Newman page for some time - and the revised page gives details of the relationship between Theophilus Piggott, a photographer of Leighton Buzzard, Beds, William Coles of Watford, and James Newman of Berkhamsted. Over the next few weeks (probably after the Olympics) I plan to provide many more examples of Newman's work - and would be very interested to hear from you if you know of examples of his early photographs, books and magazines which used his photographs, and post cards of events (including the Inns of Court Regiment when they were in Berkhamsted during the First World War).