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George Brown

11 Princes Street
7 Broad Street- later 9 Broad Street

Occupation: Servant, Locomotive Stoker & Photographer

Brown’s Camera on display at the Deal Maritime & Local History Museum

George was born in the village of Woodchurch, near Ashford, the son of a Barn Thatcher. In 1861 he was a servant at Folkestone’s Grove House Academy though being a servant may not have suited him as by the time he married, Mary Annie Amos, in 1864 he had become an Engineers Assistant then by 1871 a Locomotive Stoker.  George may have gained an interest in all things mechanical while working on the railways which might have led him to admire and study the workings of a camera as from  1874 onwards became a successful photographer in Deal. Maybe being influenced by his brother-in-law William Arthur Sawyer. 

7 Broad Street

When the couple first moved into Deal they lived in Princes Street but on setting up as a photographer they moved, with their family, to 7 Broad Street which at the time had a large garden or at least a piece of open ground alongside it, though, whether this was attached to number 7 or to number 6 we don’t at present know. We do know that with later street renumbering number 7 became number 9  and much later George’s former home and studio first became the Nelson House Restaurant then after its demolition Deal’s Library was built on its site.

Nelson House Restaurant

George’s Family

George and Mary married in Hythe’s St. Leonard’s Church by Superintendent Registrars Certificate which means that the three Sundays of ‘Reading of the Banns’ were not necessary for a legal marriage to take place. Why the haste to marry? We simply don’t know.

Their first child George Charles was registered in the East Ashford district so either Mary had gone home to her parents to give birth or the couple were living in the area at that time. Unfortunately, we can find no baptism records for any of their children except for their last child, Sydney Amos, who was baptised in St. Andrew’s, Deal in 1885.

Henry Thomas Skinner

When George married Mary Alice Amos, she brought with her, her illegitimate daughter, Annie who had been baptised in St. Leonard’s Hythe in 1861. In 1884 Annie married  Henry Thomas Skinner and gave birth to a daughter. In 1889 Skinner was tried at Maidstone Court for ‘ carnally knowing a girl under 13.’ At his trial the girl is identified as being Annie’s 5 year old daughter, Alice Maud, Skinner’s step-daughter.  He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, some of which, he served on a Convict Ship in Portsmouth Harbour. Annie’s daughter lived with her Skinner grandparents during this time, eventually marrying. Our research suggests Annie changed her name and disappeared. 

None of George’s children followed him into the photography business, but George Charles became a Manager to one of the town’s cinemas. Walter set up as a Jeweller trading from number 8 Broad street opposite his father’s shop.

George and Mary continued to live in Broad Street where Mary died in 1912. George outlived her dying in 1929. Both are buried in Hamilton Road Cemetery.

Images taken by George Brown

Sources and further reading:
Images taken by George Brown Courtesy of Sharon Morris
Deal Maritime & Local History Museum