Bertram Park

Bertram Park by Yvonne Gregory, 1930s.
Park provided the photograph of George VI on which this Southern Rhodesian stamp was based and for many other stamps and official documents.

Bertram Charles Percival Park, OBE, (1883-1972) was a British portrait photographer whose work included British and European royalty. His images were widely used on British and British Commonwealth postage stamps, currency, and other official documents of the 1930s. With his wife Yvonne Gregory, he also produced a number of photographic books of the female nude.

Early life

Bertram Charles Percival Park was born in Minster, Kent, in 1883 to Charles Percival Park and Katharine Mary Park.[1][2] He initially worked in the family firm which made artist's materials.[3]

Family

Park married the photographer Yvonne Gregory (1889-1970) at Hampstead in 1916.[4] Yvonne became one of his principal models. They had a daughter, Hilary June Park who was born in Hampstead in 1920.[5] Hilary, known as June, was an architect who married David Francis Rivers Bosanquet in 1941 and divorced him in 1947. Her second marriage was to the Finish architect Cyril Mardall (1909-1994) in 1947.[6] She died around 2006.

Photographic career

In 1910, Park was one of the founders of the London Salon of Photography. In 1919, with funding from the Egytologist Lord Carnarvon, he established studios at 43 Dover Street, London, with his wife Yvonne and children's photographer Marcus Adams.[3] They shared darkroom staff and facilities and were known as the "Three Photographers".[7]

Park's work included British and European royalty.[8] In 1927 he was made an MBE.[9] In the 1939 Birthday Honours he was made up to OBE.[10] His images were widely used on British and British Commonwealth postage stamps, currency, and other official documents in the 1930s.[11] He also produced a number of photographic books featuring the female nude and supplied photographs to naturist publications. One of his models was Pamela Green.

In later life, Park lived in Pinner, Middlesex, in a house whose grounds he used as a setting for his photography.

Police career

Outside photography, Park was a Commandant in the Metropolitan Special Constabulary and was noted as such in 1927 and 1939.[9][10]

Roses

Park was an expert on the cultivation of the rose about which he wrote many books. He was the editor of The Rose Annual and in 1957 a review in the American Institute of Biological Sciences described his The Guide to Roses, for which he also provided the photographs, as "the last word on roses".[12]

Death and legacy

Park died in Pinner in 1972.[1] He left an estate of £103,322 net.[13] In 1984, his daughter June presented to the National Post Museum (now the British Postal Museum and Archive) an album that Park had created of his photographs and the stamps based upon them.[11] Park and Gregory's theatrical portraits form part of the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.[14]

Selected publications

Photography

Roses

References

  1. 1 2 Bertram Park. The Camera Club. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  2. ↑ England, Births & Baptisms 1538-1975 Transcription. findmypast. Retrieved 6 January 2016. (subscription required)
  3. 1 2 Bertram Park. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  4. ↑ England & Wales marriages 1837-2008 Transcription. findmypast.co.uk Retrieved 28 August 2015. (subscription required)
  5. ↑ Mardall, June, National Life Story Collection: Architects' Lives, Part 1 of 10. British Library. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  6. ↑ "Mardall, Cyril Leonard Sjöström (1909–1994)", Anne Pimlott Baker, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. Online edition. Retrieved 8 January 2016. (subscription required)
  7. ↑ Marcus Adams. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Royal Portraits by Bertram Park. Royal Collection Trust. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  9. 1 2 The Edinburgh Gazette, 7 June 1927, p. 654.
  10. 1 2 The Edinburgh Gazette, 13 June 1939, p. 511.
  11. 1 2 "The Bertram Park legacy", Brian Livingstone, Cross Post, Vol. 15, No. 2, Spring 2014, pp. 14-21.
  12. ↑ Reviewed Work: The Guide to Roses by Bertram Park. AIBS Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan., 1957), p. 39.
  13. ↑ "Latest Wills", The Times, 27 February 1973, p. 16.
  14. ↑ http://www.arenapal.com/cms/page/bertram-park-and-yvonne-gregory-theatre-collection/

External links

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