Wigan Album
Church Lads Brigade
2 CommentsPhoto: Rev David Long
Item #: 27851
I reckon the picture was taken shortly before WW1.
The CLB was part of the Army's Cadet Force from 1911, and many joined up in 1914 - including, probably, some of these lads.
Many thanks for uploading the photo.
It would have been nice to know more about the people seen on it and the location where taken.
The facts on 56004, Bombardier James Rawsterne, (1877 – 1921), are good, however, from my information the photo itself was more likely to be post WW1, than Pre as thought.
James and his wife Bertha, nee Broom, had six children, John, Harry, Bertha, Nora, Eileen and Alice, but unfortunately Alice sadly died during child birth. After moving from Pendleton, Salford in approximately 1909, they lived at 19 Lakeside Cottages, Worthington for a few years. James was a “Dyer” in the textile industry and at that time worked for the Bradford Dyers association at Worthington, (at what is more commonly referred to as the Bleach Works). They later moved to 11 New Lodge and is the address shown on the signed attestation on his enlistment papers, (3rd Sept 1914), which also states his occupation as ‘Dyer’.
He was proud of his uniform, as all of the surviving photos of him show.
A keen photographer he set up in business after leaving the Army, using a rented studio in Wigan Lane, Wigan, where he did portrait work but also earned money from photographing families, holiday outings and ones similar to the above. A plate by the door at 11, New Lodge, read “James Rawsterne, Photographic Artist” and the cellar in the one-time weaver’s cottage was his dark room.
Thanks again, It’s great to see that examples of his work still exist
Without his medical history, showing whether or not he was severely incapacitated by his wounds, it is difficult to know whether or not he returned to taking photographs after the war - unless you have seen dated examples of his post-war work which would settle the matter.