FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS RELATED TO TOM STEPHENS

Mr Stephens was contacted through a talk given to Bury Photographic Society. This deposit consists of his own family photographs; see attached sheet for further information. Mr Stephens has also lent photographs belonging to Miss Howarth, who used to live with the Stephens family until her death recently; see deposit 1583. Miss Howarth was contacted via the Manchester Show in 1979, see deposits 548 and 777.

Mr Stephens was born in Cardiff in 1910. The family of his father, Thomas Stephens all came from Wales, and the family of his mother, born Mary Powell, came from Chard in Somerset. Her father was Shelah Powell, a cabinet maker's apprentice who went into the Navy.

When Mr Stephens was about 12 years old, he saw a camera set for 1/- comprising camera, plate, developing and printing kit. He did odd jobs in order to earn the shilling and bought it. For his fourteenth birthday his mother gave him a box camera and so he has always been interested in photography.

During his life, Mr Stephens has had a variety of different jobs; before the Second World War, he was a charge hand for a chemist in a flour milling factory in Gainsborough. During the war, he was in the R. A. F. as a flight engineer flying in Halifax bombers. Later in life, Mr Stephens was a Sales Manager, but lost his job, and decided to turn his hobby into a new profession. He started out knocking on doors asking to take people's photos and made £45 during his first week. He worked part-time at Mr Summerfield's studios in Salford and eventually took it over, and has another studio in Bury. Mr Stephens is now semi-retired, but his son now runs the phtographic business.