Reference
X324
Title
Glass plate negatives and index book made by Robert Richmond (1851-1933) of Leighton Buzzard.
Date free text
1902-1922
Production date
From: 1902 To: 1922
Admin/biog history
Robert Richmond (1851-1933) was the son of Robert Richmond (1813-1882) and Eliza Stedman (1811-1883) who had married at St George’s Hanover Square on the 3 May 1838. His parents were both from Kent but their children Elizabeth, Charlotte, Annie and Robert were all born in Leighton Buzzard. Robert senior was a chemist and druggist and on the 1871 Census is also described as a land owner.
Robert Richmond junior was born on the 30 November 1851. He followed in this father’s footsteps by also becoming a pharmaceutical chemist. In 1876 he married Kate Powell in the Croydon registration district (see marriage settlement NC819). Their daughter, Edith Kate born was in 1877. Unfortunately Kate died in 1880 aged 26. On the 1881 census Robert is a widower living with his three-year-old daughter with his sister Annie acting as his housekeeper. Help was not far away as on the census Robert Richmond’s parents are listed next to Robert Richmond although they lived in Market Place and Robert lived in High Street. However in 1882 Eliza Richmond, Robert’s mother died and his father died the following year. Interestingly next to Robert in High Street is Theophilus Piggot, chemist and photographer.
Robert remarried in September 1881 – he married Fanny Green, who was about five years older than he was. They had four children – Frederick (1882-1917), Hilda (1887-1901), George William (1888-1977), and Harold (1890-1916). Hilda died at the age of 14, Frederick and Harold were both killed in the First World War. Frederick was a 2nd Lieutenant and is buried at Delville Wood Cemetery; Harold was a Captain in the 9th Battalion King’s Royal rifles and is remembered on the Thiepval memorial. George became an engineer and died in 1977.
Fanny died in 1921 and Robert Richmond died 13 September 1933. Robert, his parents and Fanny are all buried in the graveyard of All Saints church Leighton Buzzard in a large family plot.
By the 1901 census Robert had retired and is living at his new home in Heath Road – Heathwood. Fanny, Edith and Frederick, a pupil surveyor are all together on the census along with a cook, a housemaid and a visitor. By 1911 only Frederick, now a qualified surveyor, is at home on census night.
In the early 1900s Robert was involved in many things. He chaired the Nursing Association and the Leighton Buzzard Gas Company, was a member of the All Saints choir (possibly as organist as he was organist at the church for many years), and one of the trustees of the town lands, who were responsible for restoring the market cross. Mr Richmond was a keen gardener. Very many of the plates not kept were of flowers. In 1893 the Leighton Buzzard Observer noted that the Leighton Buzzard chrysanthemum show he exhibited a splendid group of miscellaneous plants which, exhibited as it was by an amateur grower, reflected the greatest credit upon Mr Richmond’s skill in floral culture. ‘We do not think the latter gentleman, although he is a veteran competitor at our local exhibitions, has ever put up a more handsome group or one containing so many noteworthy and well-grown plants.’ (14 Nov 1893). He became a county councillor in 1904 and served until 1928, when he was made an alderman. He was a member of the Bedfordshire Historical Records Society which at the AGM of 1933 recorded that ‘By the death of Robert Richmond the Society had lost one of its staunchest friends, a member of its first, as of several later, Councils. Deeply interested in the past of Leighton Buzzard and Grove Priory, he contributed a valuable paper on them to the Society’s publications in 1924, and in 1928 published separately an excellent little history under the title ‘Leighton Buzzard and its Hamlets’.
Robert Richmond senr LBO 24 Oct 1882 ‘We very much regret to have to record the death which took place on Friday last of Mr Robert Richmond, one of the oldest established, and most highly esteemed tradesmen of the town of Leighton Buzzard. The deceased gentleman was best known in connection with the business of a chemist and druggist conducted by him for a period of forty-five years. In times gone by he had taken a prominent part in local affairs, and served in various parochial offices, but for many years past he had lived a partially retired life, and had taken little or no part in public matters. In politics he was staunch supporter of the principles of Conservativism and the interest he took in Governments and their doings was always great. It was about five weeks ago that Mr Richmond who had been in tolerably good health up to that time, was suddenly seized with paralysis, brought on by a weakness of the heart, which completely prostrated him and from which he never rallied. The shock, upon a system already undermined by the natural infirmities of age, was too much, and he gradually sank, and died, as stated on Friday last, at the age of sixty-nine years. He was a man of very genial disposition; his loss is much lamented, and his surviving relatives have the deep sympathy of the townspeople generally.’
Eliza died 13 April 1883 at Leighton Buzzard aged 72.
Elizabeth, married John White (who predeceased her) and died 1st May 1897 at Colwyn Bay.
Hilda died 13 January 1901 aged 14 at Homewood. (Leighton Buzzard Observer Newspaper)
Archival history
Deposit from Mr Catling, The Cedars School, Leighton Buzzard.
The plates were deposited with the archive service in 1964 and remained uncatalogued until 2024. At this point they were reviewed and those plates not considered of long-term use were weeded out and the rest were catalogued. The descriptions are arranged by size because that is the way they are arranged in the original index book. Not all the negatives listed in the index were deposited with Bedfordshire Archives. The subject of the negatives was determined from the index; local topographical views were kept, generic holiday photographs of beaches and mountains etc. and photographs of flowers were not kept.
Level of description
fonds