| Description | Glass plate negatives, lantern slides, contact prints, photographs, photograph albums, prints and engravings, correspondence and manuscripts 1935, pocket diaries 1951-1952, notebooks 1898-1963, news cuttings and advertisements 1898-1961, leaflets and booklets |
| Administrative History | Arthur Henry Thomas Boswell was born on the 13th June 1880 in East Wickham, Kent & he was baptised at Christ Church, Bexleyheath on the 25th July 1880. The eldest son of Edward Boswell and Anne Lavire Hoare he was followed by four sisters and three brothers.
At the time of the 1881 Census Boswell was 9 months old and living with his parents at 1 Smith's Cottages, Erith Road, Bexleyheath and by 1891 they had moved to 7 Market Place, Bexleyheath where Arthur's father, Edward, owned his own Coach & Cart business. The 1901 census shows the family living together living at 7 Market Place, Bexleyheath and Arthur's occupation was a Sign Writer.
In 1907 Arthur's family moved to Ontario, Canada but he remained in Bexleyheath and married Amelia McCarthy (nee Garthwaite) on the 2nd September 1908 at Dartford Register Office. Amelia was the divorced wife of Horatio William McCarthy and already had one daughter by him, Violet Amelia McCarthy. On the 8th December 1909 Arthur and Amelia's daughter, Lilian Amelia Boswell, was born. According to the 1911 Census the family were living with Amelia's mother, Amelia Garthwaite, at 68 Watling Street, Shenston Place, Bexleyheath. The census gives Arthur's occupation as 'House Decorator.'
On the 11th December 1915 Arthur enlisted with the Royal Field Artillery aged 35 years. He was eventually posted as a driver on the 6th May 1916 and then mustered as a gunner on the 3rd June that same year. During the War years he served in India and South Africa but, on the 19th March 1918 was transferred to Class W of the Army Reserve following a health inspection the previous month, which found that his knees were swollen and painful. This was the result of falling from a window in 1893, which had left his bones chipped.
Boswell was a man of many talents. An amateur historian, palmist, sign writer, property owner, coachbuilder and former cinema projectionist. He lived all of his 86 years in Bexleyheath. Boswell's pride and joy was his vast collection of photographs, negatives, glass lantern slides, photography equipment, stereoscopes and magic lantern machines.
As well as photographing local scenes he also collected sets of lantern slides covering a wide range of popular themes mostly dating from the 19th century.
In 1968 the London Borough of Bexley acquired a very special collection with unique links to the borough, its history and the wider Victorian world. The council had approached AHT Boswell in the 1950s to purchase his unique photographic record of the borough and the Victorian age of invention, innovation and exploration. After a dispute over payment Boswell had threatened to destroy the collection. When Boswell died in 1966 his step daughter, Violet Amelia McCarthy , resolved the financial issues and sold the entire collection and associated copyright to Bexley. |