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Gladstone Family Photograph Album. A superb unpublished photograph album detailing the family holidays of three generations of one of Britain's great political dynasties in the years leading up to the First World War.
Publisher:
Date of Publication: 1909
Stock Code: 5841
1909-1910. Landscape quarto, 28 thick card leaves. 211 black-and-white images mounted recto and verso. The majority of the images measure 3” x 4”, with 2 large mountain scenes (approx 10”x8” and 9”x6” respectively) and 3 folding panorama postcards. Black half calf with gilt ruling to spine and edges; midnight blue cloth boards.

A substantial family album of holiday snapshots documenting the leisure time and holidays of three generations of the descendants of William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister and Statesman. Most of the subjects are identified only by their initials, but a caption below a photograph of a young man firing a shotgun in a winter scene identifies “Will Gladstone (Killed in the 1st War)”. This is William Glynne Charles Gladstone (14th July 1885 -13 April 1915) the Liberal Party politician and the last of four generations of Gladstone's to serve in the House of Commons. Other family members featuring prominently include Prime Minister Gladstone's son The Rev. Stephen Edward Gladstone (4 April 1844-23 April 1920) Master at Eton College; Prime Minister Galdstone's grandsons Sir Albert Charles Gladstone, 5th Baronet MBE (28 October 1886 – 2 March 1967) the British businessman (among other things he was Director of the Bank of England) and Sir Charles Andrew Gladstone, 6th Baronet (28 October 1888 – 28 April 1968) Master of Eton College. As well as their shared schooling at Eton each man had a strong enthusiasm in their youth for rowing, Sir Albert Gladstone rowed four times for Oxford in the Boat Race and won a gold medal at the 1908 Olympics. Several images in the album show Eric Powell (1886-1933) the British oarsman who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics; some of the images show him rowing and swimming while others are more conventional portraits. Obviously a close family friend he was a house master at Eton and would have been a team mate of Sir Albert and a colleague of Sir Charles'. Among other family members there are also photographs which include William Herbert Gladstone, MC, son of Sir Stephen and Annie Gladstone, who was killed in action in 1918

A high proportion of the images are of maritime interest including Liverpool docks (Liverpool was the birthplace of William Ewart Gladstone), the Mauretania, SS Weimar en route from Hamburg to Leith, Lord Brassey’s yacht “Sunbeam” and shots of the family sailing and river boating. Also a large number of images showing various family members at outdoor sports including ski-ing, mountaineering and steeplechasing, winter sports at Barrowby featuring sledging, climbing in Wales (Gladstone lived at Hawarden Castle in Wales) and other locations. The Gladstone library, located in Hawarden, consists of some 250,000 volumes and is Britain's only Prime Ministerial Library.

Spine cracked at joints and heavily creased; spine and corners worn; boards stained. Shaken but still holding. Single leaf detached. Inscribed captions in ink throughout, some with dates, mostly contemporary with images but a few added later in a different hand. £500.00