| Names: | Other: Frederick Albert Edward Skeen
Other: Henry Walker Watts
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Harry Walker Watts (born: 26 October 1861, Headington, Oxfordshire, England) was a "scholar" aged 9 at the time of the 1871 Census of Woolvercott (Wolvercote). Son of Matthew Henry Watts (Master Tailor) and Elisabeth. He died in Rangoon 25 June 1936.
WARNING: The Henry Walker Watts mentioned in the A Biographical Dictionary of 19th Century Photographers in South and South-East Asia by John Falconer appears to be an error and it should be Harry Walker Watts. (Alan Griffiths, 6 August 2019, following pers. comms. with Gina Aldserson his great-granddaughter.)Preparing biographies
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Family history
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John Falconer, British Library
A Biographical Dictionary of 19th Century Photographers in South and South-East Asia |
Commercial, Burma
Business in Rangoon from 1887. Proprietors were Frederick Albert Edward Skeen (born c. 1862) and Henry Walker Watts (c.1862-1936). Skeen had been with the firm of W. L. H. Skeen and Co. in Sri Lanka and returned there on the death of his brother in 1903. He appears to have returned to Burma, although possibly not in a photographic capacity, and from 1913-21 he is listed as an assistant at Rowe and Co., Rangoon. Published Some views of Burma with notes (Second series, Rangoon, c. 1903). The business was probably taken over by Felice Beato and later by D.A. Ahuja. Listed up to 1924.
1893 1 Sule Pagoda Road, Rangoon. Assistant, A. Williams.
1894 Assistants, F. W. Parry, P. Wagstaff.
1895-6 Assistants, F. W. Parry, P. Wagstaff, C. Burrows. Advertisement also offers services to amateur photographers: ‘Photographic materials always in stock for sale. Printing, developing etc., for amateurs at moderate rates.’[1]
1897 Assistants, F. H. Parry, C. Burrows, R. Wagstaff, S. Wagstaff, P. Connell.
1898 2 Sule Pagoda Road, Rangoon. Assistants, C. Burrows, P. Wagstaff, S. Wagstaff, J. Araringa.
1899 Assistants, S. Wagstaff, F. N. Parry, C. Brignell.
1900 Assistants, S. Wagstaff, F. H. Parry.
1901 Assistants, C. Rowley, A. Meissoner. Also advertising as dealers in various kinds of Burmese artware.
1902 Assistant, C. Rowley.
1903-07 ‘Photographers, photographic dealers, printsellers and dealers in Burmese carved work.’ Proprietor, F. Beato, proprietor of the Photographic Art Gallery, Mandalay.
1908 Proprietor, F. H. Parry; assistants, E. H. Stevenson, A. W. Andrews, C. Bridgnell, E. A. Andrews; cashier, S. H. David.
1909-10 Proprietor, F. H. Parry; assistants, H. E. Stroud, A. W. Andrews, S. H. David, Chuni Lal.
1911 Staff not listed.
1912-24 48A Sule Pagoda Road, Rangoon. Proprietor, D.A. Ahuja.
H. W. Watts, manager of Arthur Barnes, wine merchants, until c. 1924, but advertising photographic materials later.
Frederick Albert Edward Skeen, photographer, aet. 26, married Francis Maud Greason at Holy Trinity, Rangoon, 21 January 1888.[2]
Henry Walker Watts, buried in Cantonment Cemetery, Rangoon, 26 June 1936, aet.74.[3]
Helen Louisa Maysie Skeen, daughter of Frederick Albert Edward and Francis Maud Skeen, born November 1888, baptised at St Philip’s Church, Rangoon, 6 December 1888.
‘Watts and Skeen, Biograph entertainments given in any part of Burma. In halls, clubs, churches, etc., or in the open air. Drawing room entertainments, children’s entertainments, smoking concert entertainments. These entertainments will be given by Mr E.H. Stevenson (of London). Who for several years enjoyed the patronage of the late Queen Victoria, and the Royal Family. Further particulars may be obtained. Watts and Skeen, 2, Soolay Pagoda Road, Rangoon.’[4]
‘Watts and Skeen.
We have just received a new stock of cameras with every up-to-date improvement, also new optical lanterns, with oil, acetyene [sic], lime-light and electric light fittings. Bioscopes and films. Biograph entertainment given anywhere. Call and talk the matter over with us.’[5]
Footnotes
- Λ Advertisement in T. Hesketh Biggs, The Shwe Dagon Pagoda, Rangoon (Hanthawaddy Press, Rangoon, 1895).
- Λ IOR/N/1/290/f.135.
- Λ IOR/N/1/573/f.182.
- Λ Rangoon Times, 24 November 1906.
- Λ Rangoon Times, 8 December 1906, p. 2.
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