Thomas George Whaite (1834-1895)

Thomas Whaite was born in Manchester in 1834. The son of the painter Thomas Whaite (1796-1881), who was best known for painting banners that were flown at the Peterloo Massacre in August 1819. Whaite seems to have arrived in Scarborough about the same time as Oliver Sarony. At first he seems to establish his studio in temporary locations, the first in Alma Square near the railway station in 1857. The following year out on North Cliff, which suggests that he was only in Scarborough for the season. In 1859 he is recorded in partnership with John Beckett whose studio was on Newborough. In 1864 he is married in Manchester to Elizabeth Ellen Du Val (1844-1925). From this time, with his brother in-law Charles Duval he ran the company, C. A. Du Val and Co. He left the company in 1881. In 1880 he is elected a member of the Royal Photographic Society, with an address in New Bond Street, London. From this point on and for the next seven or eight years he a regular exhibitor at the Royal Photographic Society exhibitions and appearing in the Photographic Journal. He has a number of different addresses including one in Spring Bank, Scarborough in 1882. A clue to what he was doing in Scarborough in 1882, might be found in Prichard’s study of the photographic studios of Europe. During the description of Sarony’s studio Pritchard mentions that T. G. Whaite has “prepared the plates and produced the negatives”. From 1887 to 1891 Whaite was working in his own studio in Carlisle. In 1891 he emigrated to California with his children and brother. He was to die there in 1895.

After their marriage Thomas and Elizabeth lived in Prestwich. Thomas had four children, Lillian (b.1867), Henrietta (b.1869), George (1872-1941) and Mina (b.1875). Elizabeth left him in 1871, but must have returned to have the children. She went to live in Copenhagen with Andreas Koedt who was to become her second husband.