Elsie Miriam Brown by Leonard J. Watson, Grimsby photographer c1920.

An original studio portrait of Elsie Miriam Brown by Leonard John Watson, photographer, of 144 Cleethorpe Road, Grimsby. (L. J. Watson’s home was at 55 Highgate, Cleethorpes.)

This photographic postcard was posted (from London?) but the date is not readable. The penny stamp has King George VI’s head on it i.e. posted on, or after, 1936. (Postage increased to 2d in 1940.) The address is rubber stamped onto the reverse. ” W. Burton, 379 Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes”. The postcard must have been posted some years after it was taken.

Leonard John Watson (1878-1958) was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire on 17th March 1878. He was a photographer in Folkstone, Kent when he married Matilda Seath of Folkstone in 1907. He was a photographer in Hull by 1911. Matilda Watson died in Grimsby in 1915. Leonard John Watson married Matilda’s sister, Alice Mary Seath, a music hall artiste, in Grimsby later the same year.

Leonard J. Watson died in Cleethorpes in 1958. Alice Mary Watson died on 13th December 1968.

Note: Leonard and Matilda had three children. Doris Rose Watson (1903), Marjory Alice Watson (1906) and John Charles Watson (1907) in Kent and Ruby Gaze Watson (1912) in Cleethorpes. Leonard had a child with Alice in Cleethorpes. Alice M. Watson (1917).

Note: Walter Burton was a greengrocer with a shop at 379 Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes.

Note: Elsie Miriam Brown was born in Grimsby in 1910.

Research by Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum.