CLARKE, John William

1822 - 1893

John William Clarke was born at Bury St Edmund’s, Suffolk on 1 April 1822 and baptised at St James's Church on 15 April 1822, son of John Clarke and his wife Ann née Walton. He married at Southwold, Suffolk on 6 September 1847, Martha Palmer (1818-10 July 1890), when he was described as 'of 22 Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, London'. John William Clarke went into partnership with a Samuel Clarke Wallace, trading as Clarke and Wallace, photographers, at 28 Angel Hill, Bury St Edmund's in early 1867 but on 28 December later that year the partnership was dissolved when Clarke carried on the business 'Late Clarke and Wallace' at the same address. In December 1874 there was an auction of a 'garden, stable and photographic studio of Mr J. W. Clarke' in Cemetery Road, the renamed King's Road, but 1875-1881 Clarke was a photographer and artist at 7 Angel Hill and 3 Meat Market, Bury St Edmund’s. In 1881, Clarke was living at 7 Angel Hill with his 62-year-old wife Martha and their children, 27-year-old John Palmer Clarke, ‘photographer’, 25-year-old Kate C Clarke, ‘photographer’s assistant’ and 20-year-old Arthur E. Clarke ‘university student’. In addition to work as portrait photographers, the Clarke's were regularly active in the field of topographical photography, and their views contribute significantly to the surviving record of the Bury St Edmund's area and as J. W. Clarke of Bury, exhibited an enlarged coloured photograph at the Bury & West Suffolk Fine Art Circle in 1882. His wife Marhta, who died at Southwold, was buried at Bury St Edmund’s cemetery on 14 July 1890, aged 71, when John William moved to ‘Beach Cote’, Bath Road, Felixstowe, a 'retired photographer’, with his daughter Kate and their married son, Revd Arthur Clarke, clerk in holy orders, and his wife Anna. John William Clarke died at 88 Christchurch Street, Ipswich, 'late of Abbeygate Street, Bury St Edmund's' on 14 February 1893, aged 70 and his obituary in ‘The Bury & Norwich Post’ of 21 February 1893, reports that he died in Ipswich on 14th February, aged 70, having retired (initially to Felixstowe) ‘a few years ago’. During his career he photographed the Prince of Wales and ‘many other illustrious personages’.

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Works by This Artist