A small collection of family photos I bought from a favourite seller on eBay back in July. I initially acquired them because I didn’t have any CDVs from the photographer L.L. Christmas in my collection. To have five members of the same family, all named, was a bonus.

The Hall Family.

James Charles Hall was born in 1842 in Shoreditch, Middlesex. His parents were John Hall and Sarah Comer, mispelt in some records as ‘Corner’. They had married in the parish Church of Newington, Surrey, on 5 November 1838. At the time of their marriage, John was a Widower, and his occupation was a Tailor.

James Charles Hall married Sarah Elizabeth Amis on 4 February 1865 in the parish Church of St Leonard in Shoreditch, London. He died in July 1917 in Edmonton, Middlesex. He was 76 years old.

As you can see, at the time of his marriage in 1865, James was a Merchant Clerk, but then by the time of the 1871 census, he was a Grocer employing one boy, and the same in 1881. In 1891, he was ‘living on his own means.’ 1901 and 1911 censuses, it says retired grocer.

Sarah Elizabeth Amis was born on 1 January 1843 in Cromer, Norfolk. I wonder how they met? Her father was Samuel Amiss, a Bootmaker. Her mother was Martha Fowle. Her parents had married in 1840 in Erpingham, Norfolk. Sarah died in September 1922 in Edmonton, Middlesex, aged 79 years.

James and Sarah had four children during their marriage: The eldest was Maud Madeline Hall, 1870-1953. Maud never married and had no occupation after 1891, when she was a housemaid to a family in Stamford Hill, London. She lived with her widowed mother and sister, Eunice, who was also still single then in 1921.

Second born, Julia Theresa Hall, 1873-1951, was a servant in 1891, just like her sister Maud, and then she met and married Ernest George Bethall, who was an engineer.

Julia and Ernest had one son and two daughters, Geoffrey, Phyllis and Winifred. In 1921, Ernest was working for the ‘Midland Railway, Locomotive Joint Maker. Running Shed Repairs. By 1939, he was working at a Chemical Works as a heavy worker.

Shame I didn’t buy a photo of Maud or Julia, but I got lucky and did find a photo of each of them, and also Ernest George Bethall, on a public family tree on Ancestry.

The only son born to James and Sarah was Sidney Comer Hall, who was born on 14 March 1875 in Hackney, Middlesex.

Sidney married Ellen Maria Dickinson in the parish church of Tottenham, Middlesex, on 4 September 1901. The couple had no children.

Sidney was a Clerk at a silversmith’s in 1911; by 1921, he was a Cashier at Hendon Electric Supply Co at 43 Golders Green Road, London. In 1939, he was an Electrical Supplies Cashier, so maybe still with the same company.

Sidney died in 1950 at the age of 75, Ellen died the following year.

Eunice Pauline Hall, 1878-1967.

The youngest child Eunice Pauline Hall, was born on 15 December 1877. In 1911 and 1921, Eunice was an Elementary School Teacher, having trained at a college in Norfolk. In 1939, at the age of 62, Eunice was an Assistant School Teacher in Baldock, Hertfordshire, having moved out of Middlesex. She never married or had any children.

Eunice died in July 1967 in Enfield, Middlesex, at the age of 89.

My last photo I bought was a cousin of the Hall children above.

Edgar Charles Kipling was born on 21 March 1878 in Barnsbury, Middlesex. His father was John Ellis Kipling, and his mother was Sarah Jane Hall, who was a sister to James Charles Hall, the first CDV in this blog. Edgar married Helen Beatrice Mary Pearson on 6 June 1908 in Camberwell, Surrey.

The 1911 England Census record for Edgar Charles Kipling provides a snapshot of his life at the time. Edgar, aged 32, lived at 86 Broadwater Road, Tottenham, Middlesex, with his wife Helen B. Kipling, aged 26, and their one-year-old son, Anthony G. Kipling. Edgar’s occupation was listed as a traveller for furniture manufacture, indicating his role likely involved sales or distribution within the furniture industry.

Edgar died in January 1951 in Surrey at the age of 72. Helen died on 4 June 1966, aged she was 80. She died at 23 Northampton Crescent, Eastlea, Salisbury, Zimbabwe, South Africa.

The couple had four sons: Edgar Anthony George Kipling, 1909-1989, Philip Morris Pearson Kipling, 1916-1920, who was just four years old when he died.

Their third son was Peter Cyril Philip Kipling, 1922-1943. This is his WW2 service record from Ancestry.

Service Branch Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Squadron Number 1339181
Theatre of War Mediterranean
Squadron 40
Trade Air Gunner
Death Date 11 Apr 1943, killed in action.
Burial Place Medjez-El-Bab War Cemetery, Tunisia
Reference Number 1339181 Kipling.

Sergeant Peter C P Kipling was killed on April 11, 1943, in North Africa at the age of 20. Shot Down By Flak While Illuminating the Target During A Raid on St Marie Du Zit Airfield. He is buried in the Medjez-el-Bab War Cemetery in Tunisia, approximately 60 kilometres west of Tunis. The personal inscription on his grave reads: “Our Very Dear Peter, Ever in the Proud Thoughts of His Parents and Family,” and it also commemorates the other crew members of the same aircraft.

The youngest son was Paul Gerard Francis Kipling, 1927-2005.

The Hall Family tree on Ancestry: The Hall Family

The Photographer L L Christmas.

The Story of Lea Latimer Christmas (1871–1941) and the Christmas Family.

Lea Latimer Christmas came from a long line of skilled craftsmen whose work spanned the changing technologies of the 19th and early 20th centuries. His branch of the Christmas family was closely associated with coachbuilding, later moving into the new world of motor engineering.

The Ancestors, the Coachbuilder Christmases.

Lea’s grandfather, Eleazar Christmas (1818–1896), married Hannah Smith of Watford in 1839. By 1856, Eleazar had established himself on Watford High Street, where he worked as a master coachbuilder, employing two men and two boys. The firm prospered and evolved with the times: by the mid-20th century, the same business, by then described as a motor engineering firm, was still trading under the Christmas name on the High Street as late as 1960.

Another member of the wider family, Thomas Christmas, maintained a similar coachbuilding business in Hemel Hempstead around the turn of the century, indicating a strong family tradition in this trade.

Lea’s Parents: From Coachbuilding to the East End.

Lea’s father, also named Eleazar Christmas (1841–1909), was born in London and followed the family occupation as a coachbuilder. In 1866, he married Maria Beeson, daughter of a master blacksmith from Bushey. Their first children were born in Watford, but around 1868, the family moved to Brackley, Northamptonshire. It was there, in 1871, that Lea Latimer Christmas was born.

By the 1881 census, however, the family had relocated again, this time to the East End of London. Eleazar had left coachbuilding behind and was running the Albion eating house at 99 Chrisp Street, Bromley. This shift away from the family’s traditional trade may have influenced the unusual career direction Lea would later pursue.

Lea Becomes a Photographer.

By 1891, at just 20 years old, Lea was already working as a photographer, living at home with his parents in Bromley. No records explain what drew him to this profession, but it was an era when photography was expanding rapidly, and new studios were opening throughout London.

In August 1895, Lea married Edith George, daughter of Jeremiah George, a draper. Shortly afterwards, around 1897, Lea established himself at Ansey House Studio, 104 Stoke Newington Road, Hackney, the address that appears on surviving cabinet cards.

The 1901 census lists him at this address as a photographer, living with his two young children, while his wife Edith was away visiting friends.

What a special photo, one of Lea’s wife, Edith, found on a public tree on Ancestry. Unfortunately, the facts are incorrect, as this photo was taken around 1895-1902. The child in her arms is most likely to be Edith Mary Christmas, her firstborn, born on 3 June 1897, definitely not a grandchild. I shall send a message to the person who shared this photo on Ancestry.

Lea and Edith had four children: Edith Mary(1897-1990), Thomas Lea (1899-1981), Dorothy Anne (1900-1966), and Rosa Maud, born on 2 September 1901. Rosa married George Shearer from Scotland in 1923, and the following year, the couple emigrated to America. Rosa died in New Jersey, America, in 1981.

Going back to Hertfordshire: Watford and St Albans.

Before the 1911 census, Lea moved his family back to Hertfordshire, settling at 90 Queens Road, Watford. There he worked as a photographer on his own account, while Edith is recorded as a draper.

Trade directories for 1912 and 1914 list Edith as a draper at the Queens Road address, suggesting that the couple operated their respective businesses side by side. By 1917 and 1922, she appears in directories as a milliner at 23 St Catherine’s Street, St Albans, premises previously used by the Crown Publishing Co. in 1908–09. Lea is not separately listed in the Hertfordshire directories during this period, but given the shared addresses, he was almost certainly working from the same locations.

The Christmas Family Tree on Ancestry: Christmas Family Tree

Another Photographer in the family.

Photography was not limited to Lea alone. His brother, Walter Henry Christmas, living at 8 Queens Road, Bowes Park, Wood Green, worked as a photographer during the First World War. He is known to have taken photographs of the London Scottish regiment at a musketry training camp in North Mimms in August 1915.

From coachbuilding in the mid-19th century to photography in the early 20th century, the Christmas family adapted to the changing technologies and trades of their time. Lea Latimer Christmas, born into a line of craftsmen, forged his own path as a photographer, first in Hackney and later in Watford and St Albans, while maintaining the family’s long-standing connection to skilled, hands-on professions.

You can contact me either by commenting here or via email at lynnswaffles@gmail.com. 

Wishing all my lovely friends, followers and readers of my Blog a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy 2026.

Till next time then…….