The Yerbury History
Edward Reuben Yerbury was born in London on the 2nd of November 1816 where he lived all of his life. He married in 1842, but died a comparatively young man in 1864, a few days after his 48th birthday.
His eldest son, my great- grandfather, also Edward Reuben, began his working life at the age of fourteen. Edward later attended the London School of Photography from 1862 to 1864.
In 1864, when he completed his photographic training, my great-grandfather travelled to Edinburgh and set up in business with a partner at No2 South Hanover Street on the corner with Edinburgh’s Princes Street, under the name Yerbury & Stewart.
We know nothing of Mr Stewart’s origins, but the partnership did not last long, and my great-grandfather soon became the sole proprietor of the firm E. R. Yerbury, providing photography in all its branches. In October of 1875, eleven years after his arrival in Edinburgh, my great-grandfather married Emma Tyrrell.
Great-grandfather worked all of his life as a portrait photographer, building up the business in Hanover Street and then planning and organising the move to new, and much larger premises at 90-92 Morningside Road, Churchill Edinburgh where he continued to maintain an active interest until his death in 1933 a few weeks short of his 90th birthday.
The 3rd generation, my grandfather, also Edward Reuben, was born on the 23rd of June 1881. He entered the family business under the guidance of his father and the business then became E R Yerbury & Son. Then came a move from Hanover Street to Churchill which took place in 1905.
My grandfather launched himself into the photographic world with a fervour which was unequalled in Edinburgh at that time. He exhibited on an International level and won countless awards for his beautiful work in Portraiture.
He also started to specialise in studies of the female form. This latter work, carried out in an age when photography of the nude as not commonplace, but it appears to have enhanced my grandfather’s reputation rather than detracting from it.
In 1930 grandfather exhibited at the All British Exhibition of the Professional Photographer’s Association at the Suffolk Street Galleries in Pall Mall, London where his photograph, Master, Treasurer and Assistants of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh won the highest accolade and was named Picture of the Year. He gained a lot of publicity from that accolade.
Such was grandfather reputation, in 1942 he was commissioned to make some excellent portrait studies of the leader of the Free French General Charles De Gaulle.
At the end of the World War 2, Edward was invited by the French Government to visit Paris as their guest at the Ritz Hotel he was supplied with a personal chauffeur for a week, here he made several superb portrait studies of General De Gaulle. We have a wonderful framed copy of the chosen image which was signed by both De Gaulle and my grandfather. It is one of my prize possessions.
Grandfather continued to work in the family business and was then joined by my father in late 1940.
My grandfather died in 1952 less than a year after I was born, one regret is that I never had the opportunity to get to know, talk to, or learn from him, however he has been a huge influence on my photography. However he did leave me a personal handwritten message which I still have and will always treasure.