Arthur C. Vesey, son of George Vesey of Long Ditton, Surrey, and the brother of Gertrude Frances Vesey, the compiler of the album in which all the portraits on this and the preceding page were found.

Born at Hampton in Middlesex in or about 1835, Arthur Vesey appears on several censuses, always at Long Ditton. In 1861 he gave his profession as ‘Audit Office Clerk,’ in 1871 he was working in the ‘Exchequer and Audit Dept. Civil Service,’ and in 1881 he described himself as a ‘Clerk’ at the ‘Exchequer and Audit Office.’

All the portraits on this and the preceding page are from the album of Gertrude Frances Vesey of Long Ditton [Surrey]. Born the daughter of George and Harriet Vesey in 1842 (christened at Long Ditton on 4 July 1842), she was 18 years old when she began to compile the album. She lived at home with her parents for many years, until on 23 November 1876, at the age of 34, she became the second wife of the 58-year-old Reverend John William Hawtrey (1818-1891). She appears on the 1881 census living at St. Michael’s School, Langley Marish [Bucks.], where her husband was the headmaster “without the cure of souls”. The couple had a three-year-old daughter called Gabrielle and a nine-month-old son called Guy.