Reginald Spurr (1846-1914)

Reginald Spurr was born in Huddersfield on 26 July 1846. His father John was an attorney’s clerk and later a hotelier, and mother was Mary Ann. He began his photographic career as an assistant to John Vincent Hatch whose studio was in Buxton Road, Huddersfield. By the middle of 1869 Spurr had taken over the Huddersfield studio of James Townsend Wigney. After Spurr’s marriage to Emma Dade in 1877 the family had connections to Scarborough. Spurr too the opportunity to by the studio of Phillips and Keld following their bankruptcy in 1882, but this seems to have been a very short term arrangement. In 1883 he transferred his Ramsden Road Studio to Peter Paul Skeolan. By 1884 Spurr was advertising in Hull. From about 1900 his business seems to have been exclusively in Bridlington where he was assisted by two of his children, Louis and Florence. There are many postcards issued by both Spurr & Co and Spurr and Son under the name of “Spurr’s Series”.

In 1870 he joined the 6th West Yorkshire Rifle Volunteers achieving the rank of corporal. In 1877 he married Emma Toye Dade (1860-1941) at St Mary’s Church Scarborough. Emma was the daughter of Frederick W. Dade (1836-1874). Dade was a London born photographer who from 1859, following his marriage to Matilda Toye (b.1835) worked on the Isle of Wight (where Emma was born). The family moved to Chichester in 1860 where Dade established his own photographic and printing business. They only stayed in Sussex a short time before returning to London, where Dade had a number of studios. In 1873 the family moved to Scarborough when Dade was employed by Oliver Sarony, where they stayed following Dade’s early death the following year. Two of Emma’s brothers were well known artists, Ernest Frederick Dade (1864-1934) and Frederick Dade (1874-1908).

He and Emma had 4 children, Reginald Dade Spurr (1878-1942), Ernest John Spurr (1880-1966), Louis Francis Hugh Spurr (1882-1936) and Florence Mabel Spurr (c.1883-1973). Louis was for a time a photographer, presumably the Son in Spurr and Son that operated in Bridlington just before World War I. In January 1883 Reginald Spurr was initiated in the Freemasons (Meltham Lodge of Peace (No. 149)).