Working for the photographic company W. & D. Downey helped a number of their employees reach the top of the profession.

This blogpost mini-series about Downey luminaries has so far profiled H. S Mendelssohn (1847-1908) and John Edwards (1813-1898).

Examples of their work feature in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London amongst others, and were also used by the illustrated press.

Our third subject is someone who Messrs. Mendelssohn and Edwards are likely to have known during their years with Downey.

James Herriott was born in 1846 in Blaydon, a town on the Tyne, a few miles across the river from Newcastle.

By his mid-twenties, he was married with a baby daughter and living in nearby Gateshead.

But he had already made valuable connections in the photographic business.

During his teens, he was apprenticed to Mawson & Swan of Newcastle on Tyne, who supplied firms like W. & D. Downey with the latest photographic equipment and chemicals.

Given this background, it’s perhaps unsurprising that James Herriott’s own career in photography was soon underway in Gateshead.

The 1871 census recorded his ‘rank, profession or occupation’ as ‘photographic artist,’ and the following year, a newspaper advertisement described him as a ‘portrait and landscape photographer.’

In terms of portraits, he offered customers ‘cartes de visite enlarged to life size and finished in colours.’

Whether his business hit financial or other difficulties, a notice published in the Newcastle Journal in April 1875 signalled a change of direction.

After closing for alterations, the notice stated, the business would re-open ‘under the named management of Downey and Herriott’ and ‘they will be prepared to do the highest class of work in the Art.’

The named ‘Mr. Downey, late of Oxford Street, Newcastle’ was photographer John Downey (1823-1906), elder brother of William and Daniel.

As described in part 1 of this mini-series, John Downey was previously in  partnership for two years (1872-73) with Hayman Seleg (H.S.) Mendelssohn, another Downey apprentice.

The Downey & Herriott partnership though appears to have been even more short-lived.

Within a year or so, James Herriott was again advertising his Gateshead business, now with a second studio address in the centre of Newcastle.

Meanwhile, John Downey had set up ‘J & C. Downey, Photo Artists’ with his eldest son Cornelius at a separate address in Gateshead.

Downey & Herriott portraits are hard to track down, however, this cabinet card is unusual in that it shows the name ‘Downey’ crossed out on both front and the verso.

One explanation might be that card stock printed for the Downey & Herriott partnership was later used by James Herriott alone, perhaps because finances were still tight.

It’s also noticeable that both Downey & Herriott and Downey & Mendelssohn used the same distinctive orange-coloured card for their products.

Herriott’s involvement with the Downey photographic empire points to a long-running relationship.

It was one that perhaps began in the late-1860s following his Mawson & Swan apprenticeship and before opening his own Gateshead studio.

In a 1920s newspaper interview recalling ‘the days of his apprenticeship to W. and D. Downey,’ he recalled assisting ‘Mr. Downey’ in photographing both Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) on separate occasions.

Another memory of a Downey assignment involved photographing Prince Albert (known as Eddy) and Prince George (the future George V) ‘while learning to splice rope’ during naval training aboard HMS Britannia.

In May 1878, the resulting photograph credited to ‘Messrs. Downey’ was reproduced as an engraving by the Illustrated London News.

The dating of 1878, at a point when James Herriott was running his own photographic business, reinforces the idea that he was a trusted Downey associate.

Within a few years though, the Tyneside chapter of his life came to an end.

In March 1882, the Berwick Advertiser listed ‘James Herriott, photographer’ among ‘incomers’ to Berwick on Tweed.

This move together with his wife Martha and their four children might be explained by James’s parents originating from Berwick, the northernmost town in England, where James had become a Freeman at the age of 21.

Resuming his photography, he opened a studio in the town’s Castlegate offering a range of portraits.

The verso of his products also took the opportunity to highlight his professional link to ‘Messrs. W. &. D. Downey, Photographers to the Queen, London.’

Though a respected portraitist, he rode successive changes in photographic fashion, later staging magic lantern shows.

The Castlegate studio operated for nearly 30 years with James’s sons Alfred and William eventually assisting their father.

When the Herriotts celebrated their Diamond Wedding in 1928, a family portrait with James and Martha at its centre duly appeared in the local press.

Three years later, James Herriott died aged 85 in the neighbouring  Northumberland town of Alnwick where he lived in retirement.

His death marked the end of a line of Downey-trained photographers stretching back to 1860s Newcastle.

In the final part of this mini-series of blogposts, how a Downey portrait photographer from the 1880s embraced the postcard revolution.

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