Alfred Hugh Harman (1841 – 23 May 1913) was a pioneer of photography and founder of Ilford Limited. He established a photography business in

Peckham Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...

in 1862 using

William Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th ce ...

’s

Calotype Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low ...

negative/positive printing process. In 1864 he was advertising enlargements using solar cameras and artificial light. In 1879 Harman abandoned his photographic studio and moved to

Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...

village where he began manufacturing dry gelatine plates in the basement of his new home in Cranbrook Road on the corner with

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...

. As business grew, he expanded his workplace into the ground floor and employed two men and three boys. His early processes were rudimentary—he applied his emulsion formula with a teapot—but the huge growth in the photography market gave him the revenue he needed to build purpose-built premises in 1883. These 'Britannia Works' went public in 1891, were relaunched as The Britannia Works (1898) Limited in 1898. In 1900 they were renamed Ilford Limited, despite objections from the Ilford Urban District Council, who argued that being the area's largest employer did not give the company the right to assume the town's name. Harman retired from the company in 1897 due to ill health, but returned around the time of the renaming. By then he held a substantial share in the company. He favoured a proposal by

George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Kodak, Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he ...

that

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

and Ilford should merge in 1902. However, the directors of the much smaller Ilford perceived it as a takeover attempt, and Harman was persuaded to reject the proposal. Harman married a Dublin-born widow, Nina Knobble, who had a son George from her first marriage. In 1894 Harman moved to Grayswood,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. In 1900 he offered to finance a church in Grayswood, on land given by Lord Derby, on the condition that a parish be created there. In 1901, the new parish of Grayswood was formed from parts of the old parishes of

Witley Witley is a village in the civil parish of Witley and Milford in the Waverley (borough), Waverley district in Surrey, England. It is centred south west of the town of Godalming and southwest of Guildford. The land is a mixture of rural (ran ...

Chiddingfold Chiddingfold is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Weald in the Waverley, Surrey, Waverley district of Surrey, England. It lies on the A283 road between Milford, Surrey, Milford and Petworth. The parish includes the h ...

Haslemere The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south-west Surrey, England, around south-west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill (Hindhead, Surrey), Beacon Hill, they comprise ...

and

Thursley Thursley is a village and civil parish in southwest Surrey, west of the A3 between Milford and Hindhead. An associated hamlet is Bowlhead Green. To the east is Brook. In the south of the parish rises the Greensand Ridge, in this section re ...

and

All Saints' Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania * All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia * All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Brisbane, Queensland *All ...

was consecrated in 1902.

References

Bibliography

*R Hercock and G Jones, ''Silver by the Ton: A History of Ilford Limited 1879-1979''. (London: McGraw-Hill, 1979) {{DEFAULTSORT:Harman, Alfred Hugh 1841 births 1913 deaths Pioneers of photography Photographers from London 19th-century English photographers