George Willis (1829-1890)

George Willis may be one of Scarborough’s most important photographers. His record of Yorkshire’s abbeys, churches, historic buildings and street views as simple photographs and stereographs is second to none. George Willis was born in Birmingham in 1829. In 1855 when he was 26 and living in York he is thought to have taken up photography. Adverts for his photographic business start to appear in the York newspapers in 1857. The 1861 census gives his occupation as game-dealer and photographer, living in Garden Place, York, so it it is likely photography was still not his main occupation.

George Willis had been born in relatively poor area of Birmingham and his father (John) had died in 1838 when he was only nine years old. His mother, Mary (nee Floyd, already a widow from a marriage to Henry Rosser), was left a widow again with three small children to look after, George had a younger brother, James Henry and a sister Ann. His mother married again in 1841, this time to John Smith from Carlton in Yorkshire. In 1851 George was recorded as living with the family in Upper Dean Street, in the St Martin’s area of Birmingham. the whole family was engaged in aspects of the shoe trade. George was a Japanner, lacquering small metal items, probably buckles, lace-ends and buttons. In 1854 George moves to York and married Mary Ann Smith, possibly a relative of his stepfather. His new wife’s father (also John Smith (1796-1847) had been a game dealer and George seems to be employed within his business in Stonegate.

Mary and George had four children by the time that they moved to Scarborough in 1863, Mary Ann (1856-1917), Fanny Eliza (1857-1916), Edgar Albert (1860-1922) and Alfred Alexander (1861-1946). Five more children were to follow later, Pricilla Alice (1864-1871), Lavinia Rosamund (1866-1937)William John Butler (1868-1941), George Frederick (1870-1877) and Leon Clement (1875-1943)