Harry Maitland- Banstead Hall’s Son

Research for today’s post comes from James Crouch of the Banstead War Memorial Project, who often brings us wonderful insight to the lives of our sitters of which we are incredibly grateful! Demolished around 1980, Banstead Hall was a Boys School for a century and we have several Knights-Whittome photographs of its students in our…

‘Still bombing us but still here’ – Notes From Winnie’s Diary

Today’s post is written by one of our dedicated Volunteers, Margaret, who became involved with the project when she stumbled upon a portrait of her Great Aunt, Winifred Lilian Garman, amongst our collection. Upon discovering the Past on Glass project Margaret has since been a keen Negative Digitiser and Researcher and is today bringing us…

What Became of These Likely Lads?

This week marks the return of London Writers Week, a celebration of new writing in the UK, and also 106 years since a particular David Knights-Whittome photograph was taken of the Carshalton Convent School boys. An unlikely connection it may seem! However, as you may know, over the last year we are proud to have…

‘Baby Sparenborg’, an enemy alien in WW1 Britain?

Today’s post is written by our volunteer Elizabeth, who was inspired to research 4 plates titled ‘baby Sparenborg’, and unravel the lost story of a British family with German origins, living in England during WW1. It is often impossible to tell how the sitters came to have their photographs taken, and this is a key…