Joseph William Rowley

An inked inscription verso in a period hand identifies the sitter. There are several candidates for a fuller identification but this is probably the Joseph William Rowley who was born at Sheffield in Yorkshire in 1862. He appears on the 1871 census, a pupil at Providence House School at Lynsted in Kent. He later became an 'Architect and Surveyor' (1911 census).

Photographed by R. Coulston and Co of Peckham in South London.

According to the website Sussex PhotoHistory, the photographer's full name was Richard Coulston Cocking. He 'worked as a photographer between 1869 and 1871 and ran studios in Peckham and Camberwell, but it appears that he abandoned photography after 1871 to concentrate on his other business interests. Richard C. Cocking was primarily a builder and decorator and later established a successful building business, with branches in Peckham, Camberwell and East Dulwich, under the trade name of Richard C. Cocking & Son.'