Glass negatives of the interior of Thomas Brown's house, Hong Kong Road, Shanghai....

Collection six 10'' x 8'' dry plate glass negatives showing the interior of the house of Thomas Brown in Shanghai, plus one printing-out paper print of the grave of his wife Alice (née Campbell), who died in Shanghai in 1890. The photographs are accompanied by a CD containing a photograph of the exterior of the Shanghai house and a portrait of Brown in later life, together with a xerox copy of the contract of employment between Sampson Low and Co., Kelly and Co. and Thomas Brown, dated 3 February 1876. The lid of the original box in which the negatives are contained is inscribed, Negatives. House in Hong Kong Road and the grave. The following biographical information has been supplied by the donor: 'Thomas Brown was born in 1850, the son of Thomas Brown of Exeter (described as a baker and builder and his wife Mary Ann. In ?1878 he married Alice Campbell and they had six children: Thomas Campbell b. 1879, Elsie Alice (1881-1971), Sidney George b. 1883, Arthur Norman (1885-1951), Lilian Beatrice (1887-1945) and Florence Gertrude (1889-1979). In January 1876 Thomas had gone out to Shanghai to work for Kelly and Co., which subsequently became Kelly and Walsh...In 1890 Thomas's wife died and he erected a magnificent tomb in Shanghai...This was still in good condition in 1909...Thomas took his six motherless children back to England...For some time Thomas went back and forth to Shanghai, then in 1895 he married again and returned to England, where he ran the London branch of Kelly and Walsh. His second wife was Katherine Maud Cross, whose brother had been in the Far East. They settled at Sutton in Surrey and had three more children. At first they lived at Norfolk House in Cheam Road but then Thomas bought (or built?) a substantial house called La Roque at 17 Overton Road for his reunited family...'.

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