Derbyshire Photographers : Frederick GA Beeston of Derby
Derbyshire Photographers' Profiles
by Brett Payne, of Tauranga, New Zealand
Frederick Guy A. Beeston

of Nottingham & Derby

After learning his trade in Nottingham, Frederick Beeston operated a studio in Derby in the early 1900s.


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Frederick Guy A. Beeston was born c. 1881  at Portsmouth, Hampshire, son of a pensioned soldier and prison warder Frederick Beeston (1842-1892) and Elizabeth Bond.  His father died in 1891, shortly after the family had moved to Nottingham. By the time of the 1901 Census, when he was living with his mother and brother at 568 Vernon Road, Nottingham, he was working as a photographic assistant.

The cabinet card shown below dates from the early to mid-1900s.  It consists of a card mount from Thomas Frost's studio at 92 St Peter's Street, Derby, with a small piece of paper printed with "F. Beeston" pasted over Frost's name.  This suggests that Beeston may have briefly taken over Frost's studio at that address c. 1903.  It also possible that Beeston, like Frost, had been an assistant at the studio of Gervase Gibson & Sons in Nottingham c. 1901, who operated the studio at 92 St Peter's Street, Derby from 1903 to 1907 (Adamson, 1997).

Portfolio
Image © & collection of Brett Payne
Unidentified young couple
by F. Beeston of 92 St peter's St, Derby
Undated, but probably taken c. 1903-1904

Format: Cabinet Card
Size: Mount 108 x 165.5 Photo 90 x 132.5 mm
Negative No. 15640 (?)

Image © & collection of Brett Payne

Notes: Original studio name, "T. Frost," is covered with label showing new photographer's name, "F. Beeston."  Compare with cabinet card by Frost's studio, which also has the "F" monogram shown below.

Image © & collection of Brett Payne Image © & collection of Brett Payne
Image © & collection of Brett Payne

References
Images provided by Brett Payne
1841-1901 UK Census - online from Ancestry.com
FreeBMD
International Genealogical Index - online from the LDS church
Anon (1895) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, Kelly & Co. Limited, London.
Anon (1895) History, Topography, and Directory of Derbyshire, T. Bulmer & Co. - by kind courtesy of Sonia Addis-Smith
Anon (1899) Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland & Nottinghamshire, Kelly & Co., London. University of Leicester's Digital Library of Historical Directories
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.
Craven, Maxwell (ed.) (1993) Keene's Derby, Breedon Books, Derby, pp. 200-202. - by kind courtesy of Sonia Addis-Smith

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