Julia Margaret (Pattle) Cameron (1815 - 1879)

Born 11 Jun 1815 in Calcutta, India

Ancestors

Wife of Charles Hay Cameron — married 1838 in Calcutta, India

Descendants

Died 26 Jan 1879 at age 63 in Sir Lanka (Ceylon)

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Biography

Julia (Pattle) Cameron is Notable.

Julia Margaret Pattle was the fourth child born to James and Adeline Pattle. She arrived on June 11, 1815, in Calcutta, India. Julia is the most notable of the Pattle Sisters because of her talent as a photographer. Most of Julia’s education took place in France while living with her grandmother, Therese De L’Etang. She is recorded as being in France 1818-1834.

While convalescing at the Cape of Good Hope with her parents, Julia met Charles Hay Cameron also there to recuperate. Among others staying in the area at the time was John Herschel and the three became fast friends.

It wasn’t long before Charles and Julia were married on February 1, 1838, in Calcutta, India. Though the couple had six children themselves, they raised at least eleven children altogether.

• Julia Hay was born December 5, 1838. She married Charles Lloyd Norman on January 18, 1859. They had six children. Charlotte Mary, George Cameron, Archibald Cameron, Adeline, Margaret, Herman Cameron.

• Eugene was born February 22, 1840, and christened March 4, 1840, Calcutta, Bengal, India. He married Caroline Catherine Browne January 18, 1862, in England. They had four children together. Archibald Denis, Caroline “Beatrice,” Donald, Margaret.

• Ewen Wrottesley was born December 23, 1843. He married Annie Eisdell Chinnery October 1869. They had two children Ewen Norman, Julia Mary.

• Hardinge was born August 5, 1846, christened August 26, 1846, at Fort Williams, Bengal, India. He married first Katherine Anne Macintosh Macleod. Katherine died a year later December 27, 1880. He married secondly Adeline Annie Blake in London, England on December 2, 1884. Adeline’s grandmother was Mary Cochrane Mackenzie King sister to Lt-General Colin Mackenzie.

In 1848 after Charles retired Julia and her family moved to Kent, England. They would remain there for two years then move to London. It is here where she became involved more closely with the artistic group of Holland House, a group gathered by her sister Sara. One young artist was George Frederick Watts, whom our family owes a debt of gratitude for the multiple portraits he painted of our family. It is amazing to see family portraits from six generations ago.

• Their son Charles “Charlie” was born January 1849 in London, England. Died unmarried on August 14, 1891, in Belgium.

• Henry Herschel was born on January 20, 1852, baptized February 25, 1852, in Surrey, England. Henry inherited the love of photography.

In 1860 Julia and Charles moved to the Isle of Wight. The property they purchased was next door to Alfred Tennyson, and it was promptly named Dimbola. The home is now called Dimbola Lodge and is owned by the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust who saved it from demolition.

While Charles focused on their investments in Ceylon. It was their daughter and son-in-law who gifted Julia her first camera. She was forty-eight years old. Her daughter stated, “It may amuse you, mother, to try photograph during your solitude at Freshwater.” Julia took on that challenge with gusto. Once that camera was in her hands Julia’s creative spirit took flight, and many visiting family and friends would sit for hours wearing costumes and surrounded by props. Julia is another we owe thanks to for hundreds of photos of our family. On September 9, 1869, Julia gifted “The Norman Album” to her daughter Julia. Inscribed “To the givers of my camera I dedicate/give these works of this camera, with all the gratitude for the inexhaustible pleasure to me, & to hundreds, which has resulted from the gift.” – Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight, 1869 Sep 9. The album is among a dozen Julia gifted to family members and friends.

In 1875 Julia and her husband left Freshwater and went back to Ceylon. It is said she packed her photography equipment, two coffins and a cow. Four years later Julia contracted a severe chill and died on January 26, 1879. She was sixty-four years old. Her loving husband Charles died a year later May 8, 1880. He was eighty-five years old.

Julia is credited with over 900 photographs. If you attend schooling for photography, you will study her work. ~ Deborah Spooner 2022

Sources

• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/89711464/person/262109106193

• Julia Margaret Cameron A Critical Biography by Colin Ford

• Victorian Photograph of Famous Men & Fair Women by Julia Margaret Cameron

• Calcutta Old and New

• For My Beloved Sister Mia by Julia Margaret Cameron

• From Life by Victoria Olsen

• Family documents

• Weaver, Mike, 1984, Julia Margaret Cameron 1815-1879, New York Graphic Society Books, Boston, Mass.

• Daniel, Malcolm. “Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/camr/hd_camr.htm (October 2004)

See also:

• Wikipedia Entry for Julia Margaret Cameron