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Basingstoke is fortunate to have this man’s photos – many of them could so easily have been lost.
In the 1960s town development, when buildings were being demolished, some of his glass plate negatives were rescued from a skip.
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Hampshire Record Office holds 350 of these and of those, a good number have been digitised.
His full name was Terry Cooper William John Hunt. Born in Silchester in 1882, he died aged 66 at his home, ‘Vandycke’ in Vyne Road.
By the age of eight, he was living at 8 May Street with his mother, Elizabeth, and sister Agnes, attending school probably at Fairfields.
I couldn’t find a father for him and at one census, Elizabeth describes herself as unmarried with her two daughters. Other censuses said ‘married’ and later ‘widow’. That’s one for the genealogists!
In the 1901 census, the family are in Rochford Road. Now he is described as a photographer’s apprentice; his two sisters, Edith and Agnes, like so many townswomen, were working as tailoresses.
By 1911, he is described additionally as a ‘view publisher’ and the many postcards taken by him can be bought today on websites.
He married Eva Prince in 1912. In 1921, Terry and his wife, Eva, were living over the shop at 24a Church Street where he had his business.
At age 38, he was a ‘managing partner in Photographic Studio’ and his wife was engaged in ‘domestic duties and stationery shop’.
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His wife Eva died in early 1939 and the census for that year shows him back in Vyne Road with his mother Elizabeth and sister, Agnes. He was then described as a Commercial Photographer and Photographic Specialist.
His output was very varied –- including interesting photos of a Trades’ Exhibition in the Town Hall (now The Willis Museum) and coverage of the early Carnival Processions, which raised funds for the small hospital which used to be in Hackwood Road.
His obituary in the Hants & Berks Gazette following his death on June 21, 1940, described him as ‘well known and well respected’ noting that many of his photos had been published in the paper, mentioning particularly the Silver Jubilee of George V and Queen Mary (1935) and hospital carnival fund-raising events.
He was a well-known figure around the town and villages, wearing jodhpurs and riding a motorcycle and sidecar which contained his equipment.
We owe a lot to this enterprising man.
Debbie Reavell
Basingstoke Heritage Society
