eorge Charles Beresford was born in Ireland on 10 July 1864, into a distinguished Irish family: his father was a major and his paternal grandfather was the Archbishop of Armagh. He attended the United Services College at Wesward Ho! in North Devon, where he was prepared, alongside Rudyard Kipling and others, for a career in the services, often in India. He and Kipling were and remained good friends, and both wrote about each other in books that looked back to this time. Kipling's book, Stalky & Co. (1899), is much better known, but Beresford's book, entitled Schooldays with Kipling (1936), is also entertaining. Beresford went on to the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill, and from there to India, but returned in less than two years for health reasons. After a spell at the Slade School of Art, he finally found his métier as a portrait photographer, practising in Knightsbridge from 1902 for another three decades. Since he photographed many prominent people, his work was often featured in periodicals like The Tatler and The Illustrated London News. According to his brief biography on the National Portrait Gallery's site, he donated his profits to the Red Cross during World War I and and later became an antique dealer. The gallery says that it has a grand total of 387 photographs by Beresford. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Portrait of Beresford
Portrait photographs by Beresford
Bibliography
George Charles Beresford (1864-1938), Photographer. National Portrait Gallery. Web. 28 June 2021.
Kipling-Beresford Papers. Jisc Archives Hub. Web. 28 June 2021.
Created 28 June 2021