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Edward Reuben Yerbury  FRPS  FRSA

(1881–1952)

Edward Reuben Yerbury

©  Reproduced by courtesy of the Yerbury family.   Click here for link to web site.

Edward Reuben Yerbury was born in 1881 and attended Watson's College in Edinburgh.  The College magazine reported, about seventy years later:

"He was well known to generations of Watson's boys as a photographer whose fine work has adorned our pages for years unnumbered."     [The Watsonian:  May 1952]  

Edward Reuben Yerbury

Photography

Edward Reuben Yerbury worked in the family photographic business from 1903 until 1949.  He specialised in portrait and nude photography

He exhibited at the Royal Academy of the Professional Photographer in London in 1930.  His entry, depicting the master, treasurer and assistants of the Company of Merchants was reported as being "generally acclaimed as being the Picture of the Year"    [Daily Record]

A view of ER Yerbury photographing of a large group of former pupils of Watson's College Edinburgh at their final re-union in the old school building appeared in The Evening Dispatch on 16 July 1932.

During the 1930s, he exhibited internationally winning awards in many countries, including UK, South Africa, Czechoslovakia, France, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium.

Edward Reuben Yerbury

De Gaulle

Edward Reuben Yerbury was invited by the French Government to Paris in 1945 to photograph President de Gaulle.  This was in appreciation of the portrait studies of de Gaulle taken in Edinburgh by Yerbury in 1942.

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The President was reported to have been very satisfied with the 1945 photographs.

Edward Reuben Yerbury

Obituary

On the death of Edward Reuben Yerbury in Edinburgh in 1952, the Fife Herald reported:

"Mr Yerbury, who was 70, gained prominence for his portraiture work and also for his exhibition photography.  He was also associated with the photography of many sporting groups, rugby, football and cricket teams in particular, and also of groups of school children.

Please click here to see a photograph of Edward Reuben Yerbury at work in the playground of George Watson's College

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Shortly after the war, ER Yerbury was flown to Paris to undertake a specially commissioned photograph of General de Gaulle.  This was the first official portrait of General de Gaulle to be taken after the war.

The Press reported:

He was a member of the three leading Photographic Societies but always refused to accept office in them.  He partially retired from business about two years ago and this is now carried out by his son, Mr David Yerbury.  His other son lost his life in the last war."
[FHJ:  12 Mar 1952]

Edward Reuben Yerbury

Edinburgh Photographic Society

Edward Reuben Yerbury had a long association with the Edinburgh Photographic Society.  Replying to a toast at the 1930 EPS Annual Dinner, he recalled that he had been associated with the society as far back as 1895 when as a schoolboy he first exhibited snapshots at the society's exhibition.

He returned to Edinburgh Photographic Society, in January 1940.  His subject, probably delivered by showing his colour colour cine film, was:

  A Tour Round Africa

This film was made during a trip to Capetown, Basutoland, The Victoria Falls, Bulawayo, Rhodesia, the East Coast of Africa, Zanzibar, Aden, Cairo and the Mediterranean in  1839.    [The Evening Dispatch:  27 Jan 1940]

©  Reproduced by courtesy of Trevor E R Yerbury, Edinburgh.

Edward Reuben Yerbury gave several showings of this film in Edinburgh, raising funds for The British Red Cross Society and for Scottish Churches Huts.