Person Page 68

Thomas Douglas

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Citations

1. [S5505] Chester FHS BDMs

Eliza May Edge

Parents

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Citations

1. [S223] Chester St. Mary Baptisms 1898-1947, Memo: Annotation: Chester St. Mary Baptisms 1898-1947
   
   
   1898-1922
   
   31 May 1903 Eliza May dau of William Henry & Eliza Jane
   Edge, Plumber 29 Hartington Street
   
   12 Dec 1917 Sarah Ann dau of Mary Snelson Spinster, 29
   Handbridge
   
   
   1922-1948
   
   
   20 April 1927 Norah Mary b. 20 April 1927 ? dau of Henry &
   Maggie Snelson 29 Handbridge
   Labourer
   
   18 August 1948 Philip John Hall b. 24 June 1948 son of Delme Colin
   Hall and Sarah Ann Hall, Electrician
   127 Hartington Street
   
   10 Dec 1947 John Henry Mason b. 23 October 1947 son of John Henry
   and Norah Mary Mason labourer 2
   Joinson's Court

Briscoe George Alsop Snelson¹

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briscoe

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Occupation	Briscoe George Alsop Snelson was a pawnbroker.
Biography	Brilliant photographer, oarsman and wounded WW1 veteran. His father was the manager of a pawnshop in Bridge Street - Norman Bradley's, which is still there today (only now it is a restaurant called Garfinkle's - and his father decided that young Briscoe would carry on in the trade. In the War he served in the Suffolk Yeomanry as a Lieutenant and was wounded at Arras; he was i think discharged from the territorials on 20 August 1918. The injury left him with a slight limp for the rest of his life. He took up photography, precisely when is not known; he processed all of his work in the bathroom in the terraced house in Victoria Road where the family lived. He was an enthusiastic oarsman in his younger days. In 1919 he was appointed Secretary of the Cambridgeshire Rowing Association and he held this post for 46 years until his retirement in 1965. In the early 1930's he inaugurated the Cambridge Oarsmen’s Service, an annual event held on the Sunday before each year's bumping races on the Cam in the last week in July. Oarsmen from all of the local rowing clubs attend, including the 99 Rowing Club, the Rob Roy Boat Club; the service is held in the Fen Ditton Church. He wrote a series of articles for the Cambridge Chronicle over six weeks from March 4 to April 22 1931 on the history of rowing on the River Cam and the history of the town's bumping races. This series of six articles was later published as a small bound book in 1931 under the title "Sixty-three Years of the Cam". This book is in the Cambridgeshire Library. Two trophies still bear his name at the Cambridge Regatta and the Head of the Cam Race. One of his great friends was apparently Wick Alsop, Hon Treasurer of the CRA. Another article about Briscoe appeared in "The Granta" on 3 March 1937 entitled "Cambridge Cameos - Another Local Figure - Life of a Pawnbroker". One of his good friends was another amateur photographer, Cliff Squires. They often photographed the same scene and met at the Dorothy Restaurant to discuss their work. Cliff Squires was founder of the Cambridge Camera Club and Briscoe Snelson was President for many years. He took hundreds of ethereal photographs of Cambridgeshire and its surrounding countryside in the 1930's and 1940's, capturing the mood like no other of the fens and the remote villages. Each print was meticulously printed and some of the best were used to produce glass lantern slides. Briscoe was a member of the Amateur Postal Camera Club, Lantern Slide Section. This group exchanged slides and invited critical comment from other members. He kept these technical commentaries which have survived. These are the comments of Morley Holt of Chesterton :- "A beautiful thing! A really first class slide in all ways." "A typical Snelson slide - and a jolly good one too !" "Very fine indeed". "A good slide. There appears to be some uneven reduction in top of sky. The water is very fine." "In preserving the Snelsonian delivery of slide making, something seems to have been lost in the higher tones of the sunset sky, but nevertheless, the mood of the picture is very appealing. "A very beautiful slide in every way, although I am inclined to think an even better slide would be possible from the negative." Thus a new word " Snelsonian " has entered the English language ! Some 500 slides were given to the Cambridgeshire Collection by his widow Kathleen. These can be borrowed from the Library. Some have been processed by Eddie Collinson of the Weekly News and framed. I have four of these - numbers BS33, BS13 and two unnumbered pictures. I must ask Mr. Collinson ( who provided much of the general information about Briscoe in a series of articles in the Weekly News in 1988 ) what these scenes are. In 1933, Briscoe wrote in the Chronicle that purely " for my own amusement, about two years ago, I commence making a photographic survey of the River Ouse and have since visited every stretch of the river from its source in Northamptonshire to its mouth beyond King's Lynn. I have prepared a lantern slide lecture on the River. Perhaps my lantern slides will be of interest to my rowing colleagues and angling friends, all of whom I am sure will agree with me when I say that to know the Ouse is to love it." He was first an Associate and then a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. For several years he was a judge at the Society's Annual Exhibition. He was a very patient photographer and would often wait for hours in the same spot for the right cloud formation, the right sunshine or even the right place for the cattle to halt, to complete the composition of his picture. Evidently if he could not capture the right colours, he would create them artificially in his dark room under the stairs. He used a Helier f3.5 lens at maximum aperture for 1/10 of a second on Selochrome, making a glass slide from the negative on an Ilford plate. I don' know what camera he used. Soon after Briscoe lost his first wife, Cliff Squires his friend died and, in 1953, Briscoe married his widow, Kathleen Squires. After Briscoe died there was a special Oarsman's Service held on July 25 1976 in his memory. This service involved some traditions which I don't understand - perhaps some role for three priests, choir, organist and trumpeter and "the 99". I was delighted to receive a letter early in January 1991 from his son, Kenneth Snelson, who lives in Wye, Kent. Kenneth was able to put right some of the mistakes that I had made in his family records and to add some more light to some outstanding mysteries. Evidently the "99" was a rowing club formed in 1899. Briscoe was a member of another club too, the "Rob Roy" Club. The service may have been at St. Luke's Church in Cambridge, but I could find no record of his being buried there ? According to Kenneth, Reg Alsop of the "99" Club spoke at the funeral; I wonder whether this is the Wick Alsop referred to above, and whether there is a relationship here with Annie Alsop, I guess there must be ? Towards the end he must have suffered as obituaries refer to him as never being known to have uttered a discordant note, being a kind, generous and understanding person, showing tremendous courage against the odds and never complaining of his sad lot. I understand that he had an injured foot and suffered in his later years from emphysema. [:CR:].
Reference Number	He had reference number 1690.
Birth	He was born on 16 July 1890 in Alpha Road, Chesterton, Cambridgeshire.
Death	He died on 9 November 1975.
Burial	He was buried on 12 November 1975 in St. Luke's the local parish church.2

Citations

1. [S225] Letter from Charles J. Snelson April 12 1989, Source Element: R3-1683
2. [S847] Letter from Peter Desmond Snelson dated 12 February 1993, Source Element: R3-7464