Walter Stoneman
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Walter Stoneman MBE |
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Walter Stoneman, self-portrait, April 1942
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| Born |
6 April 1876 Plymouth, England |
| Died | 14 May 1958 (aged 82) Horley, Surrey, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Photographer |
| Employer | Russell & Sons |
| Known for | Providing ca. 7,000 portrait photographs to the National Portrait Gallery |
Walter Ernest Stoneman MBE (6 April 1876 – 14 May 1958) was a British portrait photographer who took many photographs for the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London.
Stoneman was born in Plymouth, Devon on 6 April 1876, the second youngest of fourteen children of Edwin Stoneman, who ran a wholesale grocer's business. He went to school at Plymouth College, which he left when he was fifteen in order to embark on a career as a photographer. He later had his own photographic business in Plymouth, Heath and Stoneman Ltd., but most of his career was spent working for the London firm of J. Russell & Sons, which he had joined as a junior photographer by 1897.
In June 1897, he was the only one of fourteen photographers working for J. Russell & Sons who succeeded in taking four pictures of Queen Victoria in her golden state landau on the occasion of her diamond jubilee. Working for J. Russell & Sons, he took numerous photographs of royalty, , members of high society and other prominent individuals. By 1913 he became Managing Director of the firm, and after the death of John Lemmon Russell in 1915 he ran the company. In October 1932 it was absorbed into Elliott & Fry. In 1961, Walter Bird (1903–1969) purchased Russell & Sons and became its leading photographer; he sold the company to Godfrey Argent in 1967.
In 1948 Stoneman was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to photography. He continued working as a photographer right until his death in 1958.
Stoneman was a fellow of both the Royal Photographic Society and the Royal Geographic Society, as well as vice-president of the London Devonian Association. He was also a lay preacher in the Congregational church. He was married to Kathleen Irene (b. 1892), and had one son.
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