Cabinet Print of Kim Traynor's Gran in domestic service

'In Domestic Service' - around 1900

© Reproduced with acknowledgement to Kim Traynor

Thank you to Kim Traynor for allowing me to reproduce this photograph.

Kim wrote:

Grandmother

"This is a photo of my grandmother in service. It’s probably from between 1900 and 1910, just possibly even earlier.

My grandmother is on the left. Her name was Isabella Westwater (a name derived from the burn that flows under the road between Edinburgh and West Linton).

She married John Walker (seen on the photos of the Menzies’ car) when he served with the Royal Flying Corps, before becoming a chauffeur

Domestic Service

I assume the employer, whoever that was, paid for it to be taken.

I remember seeing a statistic that 1 in 4 of the working class before the Great War was in service. It makes you think!"

Kim Traynor, Tollcross, Edinburgh: September 18, 2009

Around 1900?

Patrick J Banks is one of a few early Edinburgh photographers that appears not to have been listed in the Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory, so I cannot say when his studio operated.

However the photographs above are both Cabinet Prints. Cabinet Prints were popular until the end of the 19th century, then their popularity faded rapidly, with very few being produced after about 1905.

The style of mounts of these photos look to me to be fairly late examples, so I expect that these photos would probably have been produced within a few years of 1900.

Perhaps somebody with a knowledge of military uniforms might be able to say whether or not that date sounds reasonable.

Meadowbank Crescent (the address on the first Cabinet Print) is fairly close to Piershill ( the address on the second Cabinet Print).

I also have a two other cabinet print by Patrick J Banks. Please click on this thumbnail image to see them:

Family History

Thank you to Fiona Naysmith who wrote:

"I have been trying to date an old family photo taken by PJ Banks. Photographer, Piershill, Edinburgh.

I have found the following information in the Census records:

Patrick J Banks Born about 1867, Ireland
1881 Census	Patrick was a 'scholar' living in Penicuik with his parents, William (Paper Mill Worker) and Catherine and brother Michael.
1891 Census	Patrick was aged 24, a Photographer, living in lodgings at 7 Station Road, Lasswade.
1901 Census	Patrick was aged 34, a Photographer, living with wife Ann.

Fiona Naysmith: November 23, 2011