Left: Detail from Welldon’s House Group 1,
1891, original glass plate, ©
Save Photo.
Right: Welldon’s House Group 1, 1890, original glass plate, © Save Photo.
For
over 90 years, between 1860 and 1970, Hills and Saunders, photographers by
Royal Appointment, captured memorable images of Harrow schoolboys, their
families and the beautiful surrounds of this prestigious institution. This
collection, of over 90,000 glass plate negatives, is possibly the largest
surviving archive of its kind in the world. The Collection includes every member
of staff, pupil and sporting team from Harrow School between 1860 and 1965. Glass plates rarely survive due to their fragile nature and other
top public schools are known to have sold off or disposed of their plates.
Lizzie
Davies, Save Photo’s archivist, discovered the seven images of Winston
Churchill whilst she was matching individual pupils to the photographic plates
using the original photographers’ ledgers and
documentation.
The Winston Churchill plates:
Seven plates have been discovered
that show Winston Churchill aged between 13 and 17, during his four years at
Harrow School as part of The Head Master’s House between 1889 and 1892, under
House Master Reverend Welldon. Six are from The Head Master’s House ‘Welldon’
group photographs and one photograph features him in the Harrow School Rifle
Corp. In The Head Master’s House group photographs Winston Churchill is
depicted through his years alternating between unhappiness and contentedness, reflecting
the statesman’s varied attitude towards his school years - though he didn’t
excel at school, he revisited Harrow many times. One can see his schoolboy maturation
during his years at Harrow, moving from the front to the back row. He can also be
seen dressed in military garb with the rifle Corp, having joined very early on.
One can see a keen alertness in his expression pointing towards his illustrious
military career ahead.
Left: Detail from Welldon’s House Group 1, 1890, original glass plate, © Save Photo.
Centre: Detail from Harrow School Rifle Corp,
1892, original glass plate, ©
Save Photo.
Right: Detail from Welldon’s House Group 1,
1892, original glass plate, ©
Save Photo.
Churchill’s official biographer
Sir Martin Gilbert offered a valuable insight into Churchill’s school-life
attitude, writing: 'When,
at the height of the Blitz in 1940, Randolph accompanied his father to Harrow
for the annual school songs, Churchill told him, "Listening to those boys
singing all those well-remembered songs I could see myself fifty years before
singing those tales of great deeds and of great men and wondering how I could
ever do something glorious for my country." '
Martin Gilbert, Churchill, A Life.
Peter Boswell, Managing Director of Save Photo comments ‘Save Photo Limited has been very privileged
to work with such a unique collection of historical significance. Our team have
been working on an intensive programme of conservation and archiving. We have
been lovingly inspecting each photographic plate to ensure it is carefully
cleaned, recorded and stored in high quality archival sleeves. With the First
World War centenary events beginning this year, I am delighted that we have been
able to add these amazing lost images to the portfolio of known Churchill
images’.
The Winston Churchill plates that form part of the Hills and
Saunders Harrow Collection will be offered for sale at auction later this year,
details to be announced by the Private Owner in due course.
Ends
For more information
about Save Photo, the Hills and Saunders Harrow Collection or to request
interviews with Pete Boswell (Managing Director, Save Photo Limited), Lizzie
Davies (Archivist, Save Photo Limited) or Rita Boswell (Previous Harrow
Collection Archivist), please contact Claire Owen or Emma Double at Gong Muse muse@gongmuse.com, 0207 935 4800, www.gongmuse.com.
Notes
to editors:
SAVE PHOTO
is the UK’s leading scanning and digital asset development company specialising
in supplying digitisation and scanning services to many of the UK’s major
collections and archives.
Operating
from their National Scanning Centre in Warwickshire, they have developed
digital assets for many organisations and institutions that include the British
Film Institute and the Imperial War Museum.
They
design and manage bespoke end-to-end on-site or off-site projects that often
involve millions of images and documents. They offer a range of professionally
delivered services that include digitisation, cataloguing, meta-data, data
storage, DAM and digital optimisation for all formats and type of archives and
collections such as glass plates, negatives, slides, photographs, video, cine
film, publications and documents.
Their well
known ‘Photo Legacy’ scanning service for private consumers is available
nationwide through leading retailers, Tesco, Boots, and Jessop’s providing
people with a trusted photo scanning service for all their photographic, video
and cine family archives.
For the
latest news and developments go to www.savephoto.com or follow on Twitter at
@SavedPhoto.
All
rights to the images are reserved ©
Save Photo.
