Derbyshire Photographers Profiles : Frank Casson of Somercotes
Derbyshire Photographers' Profiles
by Brett Payne, of Tauranga, New Zealand
Frank Casson

of Somercotes

Frank Casson was primarily a chemist, but appears to have operated a portrait studio in Somercotes and Alfreton at some stage in the early 20th Century.


Go straight to Portfolio


Frank Casson was born in 1872 at North Ormesby, near Middlesborough in Yorkshire, one of four children of an ironworks manager Thomas Casson (1843-) and his wife Mary (1843-).  By the time he had reached his late teens, the family had moved to Kingswinford and then to Aston, Warwickshire, and Frank had started training as an analytical chemist.  In April 1901 he was living at 6 Silver Street, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and a 1903 trade directory shows him to have been in partnership with John Henry Aplin, a mineral water manufacturer, at this address, the business being described as a "chemist & druggist."

Frank Casson moved to Derbyshire some time prior to 1912, where he lived at 74 Nottingham road, Somercotes, and had a chemist's shop.  A photograph of unknown format and date indicates that at some stage he also operated a photographic studio in Somercotes, while another photograph included on the Picture the Past web site suggests that he may have operated from nearby Alfreton too.  By 1932 he was no longer listed under either Somercotes or Alfreton, so had presumably moved on.

Portfolio
Image © & courtesy of Patrisia Carrington
Mary Anne Mee née Carrington (b. c1845)
by F. Casson of Somercotes
Undated, but probably taken between 1910 and 1920

Format: Postcard
Size: 85 x 134 mm

Image © & courtesy of Robin Turton & Patrisia Carrington

Nothing further is known about this photograph.


George & Annie Fletcher
by F. Casson of Alfreton
Undated

Format: unknown

Image © & courtesy of Nick Tomlinson & Picture the Past

Nothing further is known about this photograph.

References
Images and information kindly provided by Nick Tomlinson, Picture the Past, Robin Turton and Patrisia Carrington
1881 UK Census - online from the LDS church
1871, 1881, 1891 & 1901 UK Census - online from Ancestry.com
1901 UK Census index - online from the PRO
FreeBMD
International Genealogical Index - online from the LDS church
North East Midland Photographic Record - Picture the Past
Anon (1912) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire 1912, Kelly's Directories Ltd., London.
Anon (1932) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire 1932, Kelly's Directories Ltd., London.
Adamson, Keith I.P. (1997) Professional Photographers in Derbyshire 1843 - 1914, The PhotoHistorian, No. 118 Supplement, September 1997, ISSN 0957-0209. Courtesy of John Bradley.

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