BALDRY, George William

1834 - 1929

George William Baldry was baptised at Norwich, Norfolk on 3 August 1834, son of William Baldry (1801-8 December 1865), a land surveyor, and his wife Elizabeth née Neave (1804-1874), who married at Heigham, Norwich on 27 September 1824. In 1851, George was a 16-year-old land surveyor, living at Yarmouth Bridge Yard, Red Lion Street, Norwich with his parents, 50-year-old William and 45-year-old Elizabeth, with six siblings, Elizabeth 23, Sarah 21, Anne 18, Robert 14, John 12 and Emma 8, all born in Norwich. George married at Downham Market, Norfolk in 1858, Mary Ann Marshall (1837-1917). His partnership at Surrey Street, Norwich with Walter Frederick Browne, photographers, was dissolved in 1860 when he became a portrait painter and, together with his wife, moved around the country, in 1864 an artist of 62 Victoria Street, Ipswich but seems to have had continual financial difficulties and was a photographer & miniature painter of 6 London Street, Norwich when he became a bankrupt and again when of 5 Carlton Terrace, St Andrews Road, Hastings when declared bankrupt on 30 November 1866 and an artist of Victoria Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight on 10 August 1869 when again declared bankrupt. In 1871, a 36-year-old artist/portrait painter, living at 10 Margaret Street, Brighton, Sussex with his 35-year-old wife Mary, with seven children, Edith 11, born at Norwich, William 10, born at Brixton, Grace 6, born at Norwich, Harry Leslie Baldry, born at Ipswich, Emma 4, born at Hastings, Percy 2, born at Newcastle-on-Tyne and Ida 1, born at Brighton. On 20 November 1877 'George William Baldrey, otherwise Herbert Leslie, of 6 Dagmar Terrace, Nelson Road, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, artist' was again declared bankrupt. George had several more children born at Wood Green, London; Margate, Kent and Great Yarmouth, Norfolk and in 1891 they were living at 11 Goldhurst Crescent, Hampstead, by which time his 25-year-old daughter Grace was an artist figure painter in her own right. In 1901, George was living at 4 Headland View, Hornsea-with-Burton, Skirlaugh, Yorkshire but by November 1903 was of South Street, Bridlington, when he had another receiving order made against him when his liabilities were £186 and assets at £12 when he stated that he had previously earned over £1,000 per year. He painted ‘Lady Rose and Lady Violet Neville dressed for skating on the lake at Edridge Park, Sussex’ c.1882 and exhibited at Colnaghi in June 1896, the erstwhile twin daughters of William, 1st Marquess of Abergavenny. His wife died at East Preston, Sussex in 1917, aged 80 and George William Baldry died in June 1929, aged 95.

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Works by This Artist