Murray Gladstone

A carte-de-visite portrait of a British sailor. A pencilled inscription verso in a period hand identifies the sitter as Murray Gladstone.

According to his obituary in The Times (12 November 1928): ‘In Mr Murray Gladstone, who died on November 5 at Hampton Hill, Bishops Waltham, at the age of 80, Hampshire has lost a most kindly and popular figure in social service, charity, and sport.

‘The son of Mr Murray Gladstone, JP, he was born in 1848, and joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1861 but retired as a Lieutenant in 1874 on his marriage to Emily Annina, daughter of the third Lord Newborough. She died in 1927.

‘Mr Gladstone was a fearless horseman and a great hunting man in his day, being secretary of the Hambledon hounds for some years. He was also an excellent shot, and probably the most skilful fisherman whether for salmon or for trout in Great Britain. He was trying his own flies up the within a short time of his death. He worked with a whole-hearted devotion for years for the Church, for all local charities, for the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Help Society, for the pensions committee, on the National Reserve Territorial Force Association, and was actually running and attending to the drill and welfare of the local Boy Scouts up to within a few days of his death. No trouble was too great for him to take in relieving the anxieties of his poorer neighbours, and his loss will be severely felt.’

Photographed by Courret Hermanos of Lima in Peru.