Willoughby Wallace Hooper

Willoughby Wallace Hooper, who served in the Madras Cavalry, was a noted and notorious photographer of India and British Burma.  His photographs of this time are in collections around the world and available online.  I am looking for any photographs he took in retirement.  His obituary says he was an active photographer up until his death in 1912.  He lived in Dorset from around 1887 -1904 and then Kilmington, Devon, in the house where I now live.  He was very active in village life and we would dearly love to see any pictures of our house and village.
Does anyone know of any WWH photographs from this period please?
I would be grateful for any suggestions of how I might find any.  I have contacted those institutions who hold his Indian photographs and I have also contacted people researching his family on Ancestry, so far without success.
It is of course possible that any photographs of English domestic life were destroyed on his death as he was a bachelor.
Thank you!

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Replies

  • Hi Sîan! 

    Very many thanks for all this; a lot of pure gold dust there unknown to me, with much to follow up on! All very much appreciated. Interesting that he stayed briefly at the Limpley Stoke Hydro (now a Best Western Hotel) which is just on the edge of Bath, and friends of ours lived right next door until recently. I don't have very much to offer you in return, as yet, except for details of his life and work in India, some of which you may already know. If you email me at: hughrayner@indiaphotographs.co.uk, I can send you what I do have, if of interest, and keep you posted about any Kilmington references that turn up.

    Sian Plant said:

    Hi Hugh

    In 1891 WWH was living in Loders House, Loders, Dorset with his sister Loretta Mary a cousin Rose Willoughby and two servants.  At that time he gave his occupation as Colonel Madras Cavalry.|
    In 1901 he was at Limpney Stoke Hydro in Wilts as a visitor at which time he said he was an Indian Army pensioner.

    I can't find him in 1911 on the England or Wales census so I wonder if he may have been abroad or possibly in Scotland.

    He was buried in Kilmington on 23 Apr 1912, his sister Loretta Mary on 24 Dec 1910.  I have a contact who has a graveyard map so I will double check the plot when I know where to look.

    He left a will which was probated 24 May 1912, Effects £1937 9s 5d, proved by Ethel Caroline Haslam, spinster who I think was a niece.

    He is fairly traceable through the Electoral rolls and Kelly's Directory - the earliest he appears at Eaglemont is 1904.  From the Electoral rolls:

    1893 Loders and Hatchlands, Dorset

    1895-8 Hatchlands, Netherbury, Dorset

    1904-12 Eaglemont, Kilmington, Devon

    I found pictures of both Hatchlands and Loders House online - both are much grander than Eaglemont!

    best wishes
    Siân 

  • Hi Hugh

    In 1891 WWH was living in Loders House, Loders, Dorset with his sister Loretta Mary a cousin Rose Willoughby and two servants.  At that time he gave his occupation as Colonel Madras Cavalry.|
    In 1901 he was at Limpney Stoke Hydro in Wilts as a visitor at which time he said he was an Indian Army pensioner.

    I can't find him in 1911 on the England or Wales census so I wonder if he may have been abroad or possibly in Scotland.

    He was buried in Kilmington on 23 Apr 1912, his sister Loretta Mary on 24 Dec 1910.  I have a contact who has a graveyard map so I will double check the plot when I know where to look.

    He left a will which was probated 24 May 1912, Effects £1937 9s 5d, proved by Ethel Caroline Haslam, spinster who I think was a niece.

    He is fairly traceable through the Electoral rolls and Kelly's Directory - the earliest he appears at Eaglemont is 1904.  From the Electoral rolls:

    1893 Loders and Hatchlands, Dorset

    1895-8 Hatchlands, Netherbury, Dorset

    1904-12 Eaglemont, Kilmington, Devon

    I found pictures of both Hatchlands and Loders House online - both are much grander than Eaglemont!

    best wishes
    Siân 

  • Dear Siân,

    Many thanks. I knew nothing at all about his initial retirement to Dorset (have you any idea where?), beyond the date of his death in Kidlington, (A sister in Kidlington is also news to me!); so any light you can shed on any of this period, would be greatly appreciated. If he died without surviving family, then probably no one would have bothered with the expense of erecting a monument beyond a wooden cross. Did his sister pre-decease him, and does the church register at least give a plot number for him? I'll see what else I can dig up about him, and keep you posted!

    Best wishes,

    Hugh

    Sian Plant said:

    Hugh

    That's very kind.  Please let me know if I can help at all.  There are a few newspaper references to him and his activities in Kilmington which you probably already have, and the entries for the burials of WWH and his sister in the parish register.  We have looked in the churchyard and church for a memorial but so far we have no located anything which seems odd.  I have also had an interesting response from an Ancestry researcher which identified a distant and tenous connection to Charles Dickens!

    kind regards

    Siân

    Hugh Ashley Rayner said:

    Sadly, I don't currently have any photographs by Hooper of his homes in the UK, (although I would love to see some!), however I am researching his life and work, as part of a much wider study of early photographers in India. As and when I find anything relevant, on his life in England, and especially in Kilmington, I'll pass it on to you.

    Best Wishes, Hugh Rayner, Bath, Somerset.

  • Hugh

    That's very kind.  Please let me know if I can help at all.  There are a few newspaper references to him and his activities in Kilmington which you probably already have, and the entries for the burials of WWH and his sister in the parish register.  We have looked in the churchyard and church for a memorial but so far we have no located anything which seems odd.  I have also had an interesting response from an Ancestry researcher which identified a distant and tenous connection to Charles Dickens!

    kind regards

    Siân

    Hugh Ashley Rayner said:

    Sadly, I don't currently have any photographs by Hooper of his homes in the UK, (although I would love to see some!), however I am researching his life and work, as part of a much wider study of early photographers in India. As and when I find anything relevant, on his life in England, and especially in Kilmington, I'll pass it on to you.

    Best Wishes, Hugh Rayner, Bath, Somerset.

  • Sadly, I don't currently have any photographs by Hooper of his homes in the UK, (although I would love to see some!), however I am researching his life and work, as part of a much wider study of early photographers in India. As and when I find anything relevant, on his life in England, and especially in Kilmington, I'll pass it on to you.

    Best Wishes, Hugh Rayner, Bath, Somerset.

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