On 3 March 1982, the Southern Evening Echo published an article showing photographs of Andover and district taken by Harry Havelock Meachen when he worked for Howard’s the photographers during the 1920s.
Mr Meachen had recently visited the town and was astonished to see how it had all changed. He commented that he felt a stranger in the town he thought he knew so well.
The article was profusely illustrated with the ex-photographer’s own work, images he had taken during his time in the town, which ended in 1929 when he left to go to Southampton.
Two of these photographs were of King George V and Queen Mary’s visit to Enham, ‘I was not allowed to get close with my tripod and camera, but did manage to obtain pictures while hidden from view behind draped flags’, he said. Other photographs were of the Norman Archway, a Remembrance Day procession, a Baptist Church party in Lander Buckland’s garden at Tyrells Croft in London Road and a gathering for an Andover United Mission campaign.
Who was Harry Meachen? The family originated from Royston, Cambridgeshire. His father and grandfather were both named Henry Meachen and each died young. In 1901 his father had married Florrie Brown in Royston and Harry was born in 1903.
By 1911 Florrie was widowed and in the following year, she re-married, this time to Percy Baverstock, an ironmonger’s assistant born in Lymington, who lodged with Florrie’s uncle in Royston.
The newly-married couple moved first to Dorking, where children Nellie and Roy were born and then during World War I Percy Baverstock joined the Royal Naval Air Service as a mechanic.
When the war ended in 1918 - by which time the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps had amalgamated to form the RAF - the Baverstock family were in Andover. Possibly, Percy was stationed briefly at RAF Andover, then newly-opened. After the war, Percy became manager of Robert Nelson & Co, the domestic machinery shop at 83 High Street.
The 1921 census shows the family living above the shop. Harry who had moved with them, now 18, was taken on by Charles Howard who taught him the art of photography. His studio was right next door to Nelson’s at 81 High Street and called the Rembrandt Studios.
This inscription was probably written many years later and contains errors. The date of 1853 is far too early for Charles Howard to have built a camera as he was not born until ten years later. His parents were John and Ann Howard of Folly Cottages, in Charlton Road, and were nothing to do with photography.
And even at the age of 17, in 1881, Charles’s occupation was officially that of engine fitter, though of course he may have become interested in photography by then. Certainly, it could not be claimed he was one of the earliest photographers in the south of England. Even in Andover, there had been several professional men with local studios who had come and gone well before Charles Howard began his career.
The Baverstock family moved from living above Robert Nelson’s around 1927 and were replaced by Arthur and Annie Baker. However, Harry continued to live there as a lodger. He was now 25 and of course it was right next door to his work. By this time the redoubtable Miss Edith Howard had taken full control of the photography business started by her father.
There were a number of assistants employed at Howard’s. Some of these, once they were trained up, left to set up on their own. One of Harry Meachen’s colleagues of similar age was Frank Ward who became a free-lance photographer in Alton, and indeed two of Edith’s brothers went elsewhere; Charlie junior set up a studio in Chichester while Percy did the same in Stevenage.
Andover historian June Harris has written of her father, Edwin Albert Harris, who learnt frame-making and photography in Southend after being invalided out of World War I. He first came to Andover in 1923 in answer to an advertisement by Edith Howard for an assistant.
Another long-term employee of Edith’s was Elvie Cooper who was certainly working there during the 1920s’ period. She was an excellent artist, responsible for hand-colouring of the black and white photographs produced by the studio. In those days, all such colouring had to be done by hand and was an expensive luxury.
According to the 1982 article in the Southern Evening Echo, Harry Meachen left Andover in 1929, after 10 years in the town. Presumably, he went to Southampton, where he was certainly living in 1939.
A year before, in 1938, he had married Edith Pook. However, he seems not to have continued in the photography business as the nationwide register taken on the outbreak of the Second World War lists him as a ‘collector salesman’ at 52 Ripstone Gardens, Southampton. At that time, he had joined the Auxiliary Fire Service as part of the war effort. A son, Ian William Havelock Meachen was born in 1941.
And then the trail goes cold, except to record family deaths - Edith in 1988, Ian in 1991 and Harry in 1994. There may be no descendants, as at some point an album containing Harry Meachen’s Andover photographs while working at Howard’s found its way back here and its contents scattered among the local collectors.
Most of these have hand-written inscriptions on the back, describing what they portray, together with a black H Meachen copyright stamp and the address of the owner at 52 Ripstone Gardens, Southampton. Presumably, these were among the effects cleared and sold from the house after Harry’s death, a sadly-brief record and tribute to a happy time spent in Andover during the 1920s.
If you are interested in local history, why not join Andover History and Archaeology Society? Details can be found at www.andoverlocalhistoryarchaeology.uk.
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