A prolific photographer from the 1880s to the 1920s, Job Pottle captured local life from children to Churchill, the royal family to railways workers.
Date unknown.
Job Pottle was born in 1856 in Poole to Henry and Fanny Pottle. He grew up in a busy household with three sisters and six brothers. One of his brothers was a part-time postman and photographic assistant: the snow scene above was produced as a Christmas card image from the Pottle family, and was possibly taken by his brother, as Job himself is the man in the boat.
Job started his working life as an apprentice cordwainer (shoemaker) to his father, but by December 1889 was calling himself a photographer. He enjoyed the new technology of photography, starting a photographic studio in Wimborne at the back of his father’s property, 34 East Street, and calling it Minster Studio.
He recorded the floods of 1894 and also suffered an injury helping to catch two women who leapt from a blazing building in East Street but he still photographed the charred remains of the shop. He documented Wimborne’s celebration of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897 and photographed King Edward VII’s visit to Crichel in 1909. Later, having photographed many important Royal visitors to nearby Crichel House – you can see the impressive list on his advert – he renamed his business Royal Studio.
An enterprising photographer, Job produced popular Royal portrait postcards from his photos to sell, and also re-photographed older pictures to sell as postcards and magic lantern slides.
To Canada and back
Job’s advertising poster of 1910 (right) indicates children and animals were a speciality, and he kept pet rabbits in his studio to keep children calm and still.
Job married Mary Ann (née Wyatt) in Wimborne Minster on 5th December 1887, and the couple had two children, Reg and Ella. Reg wasn’t interested in the photographic business, but Ella was frequently seen in Job’s photographs (see above).
Ella became ill from the toxic chemicals used in the developing process. The advice to improve her health was to go to Canada – where her brother Reg had already emigrated.
In 1921 Job and Mary spent six months in Canada, returning as Ella was homesick. Returning home, Job set himself up as a grocer in Southampton, where he lived until his death in 1947, at the age of 90.
Job’s daughter Ella is the girl on the right in the white dress.
The enterprising photographer published a series of royal portrait postcards from this single visit.
Photographs supplied by Museum of East Dorset. Copies of photos from the museum’s extensive library are available to buy.
If you have any bygone photos, slides, negatives or film relating to East Dorset that you would like to loan for copying, or to donate to the museum archives, they would be delighted to receive them.
For either of the above, please email photographs@museumofeastdorset.co.uk
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