Portraits of Exeter Folk and Friends

These photos of Exeter Folk were sent in from folk from all over the UK and abroad. Why not send a photo from a previous era of your family, for inclusion on the page? Photographs of your family from Victorian portraits to wartime weddings, military uniformed grandfathers from the wars of the 20th Century, flower power hippies and mods and rockers are all welcome - help to paint a picture of those who have lived and worked in this city of ours.

Page updated 2nd February 2008 - click on a photo to enlarge.

W G Hoskins and his mother - 1908 New
The late historian Dr. W G Hoskins and his mother Alice Beatrice Hoskins (nee Dymond) pictured in 1908. His father was a baker in St David's Hill - his great grandfather opened a bakery in Rack Street in the 1830's, then Smythen Street, before the family business ended up at St David's Hill between 1891 and 1895. Hoskins is most noted for his books The Making of the English Landscape, Devon and Its People and Industry and Two Thousand Years in Exeter, all of which have become classics in local history. He died in 1992. Photo kindly supplied by Angela Marks, Hoskins niece.

New Fred and Nell Cottey - 1951
Fred Cottey was Mayor in 1951/52; it was Cottey who proclaimed, on the steps of the Guildhall, the accession of Queen Elizabeth II after the death of George VI in February 1952. Fred Cottey was also instrumental in founding Exeter Speedway in the late 1920's. As a director of the Theatre Royal he would often have the pantomime stars stay at his house in New North Road, during their run. Photo kindly supplied by Angela Marks.

 

Land girls at Cleave House
These are a group of young women who were land girls during World War Two, based at Cleave House Exwick. Will the sender of the photo please contact me as their contact email has been lost.

A Land girl wedding at Exwick Church
This photograph, provided by the same person as the one to the left, shows the wedding of a land girl at Exwick Church circa 1943/4. Since posting the photo, I have been informed that the bride is Elsie Cook, who still lives locally.

Mr and Mrs William Burrows
Mr William Burrows was the keeper of the Bonhay Pleasure Ground, just up river from the cattle market during the 1920's. He lived in a lodge, since demolished, with his wife. Their granddaughter and great granddaughter still live in Exeter.

The Shute Family - 1908
Tom and Helena Shute and their five children lived at 56 Polsloe Road in 1908. The family were still there in 1919, but by 1923, the house had a new occupant. Tom Shute was a cab driver, groom and gardener. Christopher Shute from Australia supplied the photograph.

A wounded soldier circa 1917
This photograph was one of several, of wounded soldiers, given to Winifred Batcock, who was a nurse at Heavitree Hospital (VA Hospital No 3) during 1917 and 1918. See photo to the right. The soldier wrote on the back of the card "With Best Wishes to Nurse Batcock - I will always remember my happy stay in sunny Devon, from Duncan" and "A Scoty might be kilt by the cauld, but never cauld with the kilt".

Nurse Winifred Batcock 1918
Winifred Batcock was born in 1894 in Tottenham - she had three brothers and one sister. Before she came to Exeter in  1917 to train as a nurse, she worked as a cleaner. She worked at VA Hospital No 3 (Heavitree) were she met, in May 1918, a wounded Australian soldier called Charles Osborne whom she married in October 1918. She had a son after the war and moved to Australia with her husband and baby. Her grand daughter, Tamsin Harvey now lives in New South Wales.

'Boy' Wellaway and family - 1930's
The Wellaway family, left photo, lived in St Thomas. Hubert Wellaway seated right was landlord of the Bullers Arms, Alphington Street from 1914 to 1927. He has his son, Reginald sitting on his knee. The public house at this time had a boxing ring at the rear of the premises, which may account for Reginald taking up the sport, when he was known as 'Boy' Wellaway in the 1930's and is known to have had seven professional bouts. He died from a brain haemorrhage  at the age of 29, although it is not certain if it was after a fight. The photos were supplied by Simon Wellaway, his great nephew who still lives in Exeter.

Charles Keeping - 1842 to circa 1923
These two photographs of a young and elderly Charles Keeping were sent to me by Pam Salzman his great grand daughter. Charles was a photographer in Torquay before moving to the studio at the Exe Bridge in 1870. This was the same studio that Henry Wykes took on in 1913. Keeping moved to Exmouth in 1891 before returning to Exeter by 1901. He was still listed as a photographer in 1923, when he photographed the newly completed Exeter War Memorial. See Brett Paynes listing for Charles Keeping.

John Moon, US Navy 1944
John Moon came to Exeter with the US Navy when they opened their supply base at the Exeter Golf Course. He worked in the communications section, setting up radio systems for D-day. His unit landed at Cherbourg after the main assualt on the 6th June 1944. He now lives in Rhode Island.

Robert Stewart - 1950s
Robert Stewart lived in a flat in Follets Building, Mermaid Yard, in the early 1950's. In this photograph, Robert, surrounded by four girls, is standing on the lower balcony of Follets Building, which can be seen to the left with South Street in the rear and Coombe Street over the wall on the right.

Fred Nibbs circa 1910
Fred Nibbs obtained a job as a chauffeur in Torquay before the First World War. After he married, he moved with his wife to Exeter in 1913 and became a mechanic for Standfield and White in Sidwell Street. Apart from service during the First World War, he remained with Standfield and White until he retired.

Olive Nibbs circa 1933
Olive Nibbs pictured in her Bishop Blackall School uniform in 1932. Olive lived in Weirfield Road and went to school in Holloway Street, before the family moved out to Whiteway Drive off Sweetbier Lane. She went to Bishop Blackall School in 1932 which she left in 1938. Olive now lives near Poole in Hampshire.

Mike Ewing - 1960
Mike Ewing, in the wheelbarrow lived in Exwick Villas during the floods of October and December 1960. 

Roger Mitchell - 1973
Roger Mitchell, a senior electrician for South West Electricity with a group of workers putting up the Christmas lights in Exeter High Street during 1973.

│ Top of Page │