Soldiers at Netley Hospital

An outdoor carte-de-visite showing recuperating soldiers at Netley Hospital near Southampton.

From Wikipedia:

‘The Royal Victoria Hospital or Netley Hospital was a large military hospital in Netley, near Southampton, Hampshire, England. Construction started in 1856 at the suggestion of Queen Victoria […] Often visited by Queen Victoria, the hospital was extensively used during the First World War. It became the 28th US General Hospital during the invasion of mainland Europe in the Second World War. The main building — the world’s longest building when it was completed — was entirely demolished in 1966, except for the chapel and former YMCA building, which still survive.’

Photographed by J. Dear of Victoria Terrace, Woolston, Southampton.

Born at Montrose in Scotland in or about 1819, when the census was taken in 1861 James Dear was a ship's carpenter living in Woolston, a suburb of Southampton. Ten years later, on the 1871 census, he described himself as a 'Fancy Bazaar Keeper.'

When the 1881 census was taken he was still in Woolston but he now gave his profession as a 'Photographer (out of business).' By 1891 he and his wife Elizabeth were 'Living on Own Means' at Millbrook, another suburb of Southampton.

His first studio was on Victoria Terrace in Woolston but the backplate of another carte by him suggests that he also established a subsidiary branch at Netley Hospital.

There's one more piece of information that I can't quite fit into the puzzle. According to an Australian newspaper, James's daughter Ann, wife of David Mackie, died aged only 27 at '8 Victoria-terrace, Woolston, near Southampton' on 29 December 1877. The announcement describes her as the 'only daughter of James Dear, Esq., Superintendant of Pyrmont and Richmond Bridges, Sydney, N.S.W.' (Sydney Herald, 28 March 1878). Her widower David Mackie was living with his parents-in-law when the 1881 census was taken.