An occasional series on the stories behind the new book on Manchester and the Great War.*
Now this is one of those images that you wish you could know more about.
We are at the Nell Lane Hospital in the September of 1917.
The site began as the Withington Workhouse in the 1850s built by the Chorlton Union to replace the smaller one in Hulme and there will be many who remember the hospital wings of the building.
If I think hard enough I might be able to remember passing that entrance on plenty of occasions.
Our eldest two were born there and for a while we never seemed to be out of the casualty department with everything from sporting injuries to the repercussions of falling out of a tree.
I doubt that any of the ration party will have been there for long and in time their memories of the place will have faded.
But for each of those ten men in the group along with the soldier and nurse in the doorway there will be a story but they will be stories we can only guess at.
I am drawn to the young man holding something to his eye and to the chap at the back who has lost a leg.
But without names there is no way of revealing their lives.
And so instead I wondered by the photographer who is listed as Ward at 249 Oxford Road.
This was Edward Vincent Ward who operated a photographic studio from Oxford Road.
He died in 1921 and there are some fine examples of his pictures on a site exploring the work of his father. **
In time I shall go looking for Edward Vincent and with luck somewhere I may turn up a catalogue of his postcards.
In the meantime it is his father who has caught my interest.
He was Edward Ward senior who was born in 1844 and died in 1901.
In 1871 he was a travelling salesman and on the night of the census of that year was staying in a
“boarding in Hull, Yorkshire. His wife and 9 month-old daughter were back home in Coventry at 38 Bradford St.
Exactly what Ward did while travelling is not known. His obituary indicates that it was connected with his interests in microscopy and photography, so he may have been selling equipment........ At some point between January, 1873, and October, 1874, the Ward family moved to Higher Broughton, Manchester.
By 1879, Ward had opened a shop that specialized in microscope slides, unmounted specimens, and associated apparatus. He was also a distributor for Carl Zeiss’ microscopes and lenses.
An 1882 advertisement in the Journal of the Postal Microscopical Club indicated that Ward retailed slides of selected and arranged for a minifera produced by Charles Elcock. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Manchester Microscopical Society.”**
And if you want more on this remarkable man I suggest you follow the link to the site.
For now I will just say that he also was engaged in photographing the construction of the Ship Canal which means I am off on another search.
I did go looking for 249 Oxford Road and as you expect it has gone but I will have missed it by no more than a decade if that for the studios were just down from Wilton Street opposite Manchester Museum and is now a grass verge in front of the University buildings.
So less a story of the Great War and more an intriguing new area of research.
Pictures; the Ration Party, September 1917 from the collection of David Harrop, and 249 Oxford Road, 1893 from the OS of Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Manchester and the Great War, Andrew Simpson, published in 2017, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War
**Edward Ward, 1844 – 1901, Brian Stevenson, http://microscopist.net/WardE.html
 |
| The Ration Party, 1917 |
We are at the Nell Lane Hospital in the September of 1917.
The site began as the Withington Workhouse in the 1850s built by the Chorlton Union to replace the smaller one in Hulme and there will be many who remember the hospital wings of the building.
 |
| Unknown stories, 1917 |
Our eldest two were born there and for a while we never seemed to be out of the casualty department with everything from sporting injuries to the repercussions of falling out of a tree.
I doubt that any of the ration party will have been there for long and in time their memories of the place will have faded.
But for each of those ten men in the group along with the soldier and nurse in the doorway there will be a story but they will be stories we can only guess at.
I am drawn to the young man holding something to his eye and to the chap at the back who has lost a leg.
But without names there is no way of revealing their lives.
 |
| Edward Ward, 249 Oxford Road, 1911 |
This was Edward Vincent Ward who operated a photographic studio from Oxford Road.
He died in 1921 and there are some fine examples of his pictures on a site exploring the work of his father. **
In time I shall go looking for Edward Vincent and with luck somewhere I may turn up a catalogue of his postcards.
In the meantime it is his father who has caught my interest.
He was Edward Ward senior who was born in 1844 and died in 1901.
In 1871 he was a travelling salesman and on the night of the census of that year was staying in a
“boarding in Hull, Yorkshire. His wife and 9 month-old daughter were back home in Coventry at 38 Bradford St.
 |
| 249 Oxford Road, 1893 |
By 1879, Ward had opened a shop that specialized in microscope slides, unmounted specimens, and associated apparatus. He was also a distributor for Carl Zeiss’ microscopes and lenses.
 |
| Men of the ration party, 1917 |
For now I will just say that he also was engaged in photographing the construction of the Ship Canal which means I am off on another search.
I did go looking for 249 Oxford Road and as you expect it has gone but I will have missed it by no more than a decade if that for the studios were just down from Wilton Street opposite Manchester Museum and is now a grass verge in front of the University buildings.
So less a story of the Great War and more an intriguing new area of research.
Pictures; the Ration Party, September 1917 from the collection of David Harrop, and 249 Oxford Road, 1893 from the OS of Lancashire, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
*Manchester and the Great War, Andrew Simpson, published in 2017, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20Manchester%20and%20the%20Great%20War
**Edward Ward, 1844 – 1901, Brian Stevenson, http://microscopist.net/WardE.html
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