William Bambridge

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Bambridge (born March 19, 1820 in Windsor, Berkshire , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ; † May 1, 1879 in Wandsworth, Essex, United Kingdom) was a British teacher , missionary and photographer to Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland .

family

William Bambridge was the second son of flautist George White Bambridge († 1860) and his second wife Harriet, who died shortly after the birth of their third son in June 1821. In 1848 George Bambridge remarried; his third wife Mary gave birth to three children, the last in December 1854. William Bambridge married Sophia Thorington on November 2, 1841 in Clewer near Windsor, Berkshire. She gave birth to the children William Samuel, George Frederick, Sophia Esther, Ernest , Charles and Arthur . William Samuel became a music professor, composer and organist at Marlborough College , George Frederick the secretary to Prince Alfred , Ernest, Charles and Arthur football players of the England team . Arthur studied painting in the 1880s, from 1884 to 1885 at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf , where he married and lived until 1891. George Frederick's son, George Louis St Clair Bambridge, who had served in the UK diplomatic service since 1922, married Elsie, the daughter of the writer Rudyard Kipling , in 1924 .

Act as a teacher and missionary

After William Bambridge had trained as a teacher, he was engaged in 1841 by George Selwyn (1809-1878), who had been consecrated on October 17, 1841 as the first Anglican bishop of New Zealand , to work with him and other missionaries, including William Cotton (1813–1879) to advance the New Zealand Mission. New Zealand was officially annexed as a colony by the United Kingdom in 1841 and incorporated into the British Empire in order to put a stop to colonial aspirations in France. The missionaries reached Auckland on May 30, 1842 , where they were guests of British Governor William Hobson for a few days . In June 1842 they reached the eleven-year-old Te Waimate Mission of the Church Mission Society . Bambridge's sons William Samuel (1842) and George Frederick (1844) were born there. In 1844 the family moved near Auckland, where Selwyn had bought land for new Anglican settlement. The daughter Sophia Esther was born there. The adverse living conditions and the urging of his wife caused Bambridge to return to England with his family in December 1847, where they arrived in May 1848.

Working as a photographer

Her Majesty the Queen, The Prince of Wales, Princess Royal and Princess Alice , 1854

Shortly after his return to England, Bambridge entered the studio of the photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877). In the summer of 1854 he began working as a photographer for the British Queen Victoria. 69 invoices, which he submitted to the royal private box between 1854 and 1869, show that - although he did not belong to the royal household - he was responsible for building up a photographic collection of the queen. This collection initially comprised photos of the Queen's dogs and kennel as well as some animals in her menagerie, but then the creation of a photographic documentation of the royal household and the creation of a photo collection in albums, which also included photos of the Queen's children, especially Prince Alfred , had recorded. Recordings made by Bambridge of members of the royal family were of particular importance. The German painters Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–1873) and Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl (1823–1871) apparently used some photos as models. Bambridge continued his photographic work on various occasions for members of the royal family until the 1870s. In particular, he contributed to the Raphael collection of the Prince Consort Albert by taking photos of Raphael pictures of the Prince Consort and by making prints from existing negatives. He also accompanied Prince Alfred on his frigate HMS Galatea on a world tour to Australia and New Zealand. In contrast to the photographs of Roger Fenton (1819–1869) and Ernst Becker (1826–1888), who also took photos for the royal family, Bambrigde's photography is judged by art scholars to be only efficient, but not as brilliant.

literature

Web links

Commons : William Bambridge  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See article William Bambridge in the English language Wikipedia
  2. ^ Anne M. Lyden, p. 115 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Bambridge, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British teacher, missionary and a photographer to Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Windsor (Berkshire) , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1879
Place of death Wandsworth (Essex), United Kingdom