On this day in 1822, Lady Clementina Hawarden was born. She has been described as ‘the most pioneering Victorian female photographer during the 1860s’ and she began experimenting with photography while living on the family’s Dundrum estate in County Tipperary.
Little is known of Lady Clementina’s life as she didn’t keep a diary and few of her letters survive. We do know that she was the daughter of Admiral Charles Elphinstone Fleeming and Catalina Paulina Alessandro. In 1845, she married Cornwallis Maude, 4th Viscount Hawarden, and they moved to his family’s estate in Dundrum some years later.
It was here in Tipperary that she began to further her interest in photography, initially by taking stereoscopic images (capturing two slightly offset images to create a 3D effect) of the landscape around Dundrum. After moving back to London, she switched her focus from stereoscopic images of the landscape to standalone images focussing on her daughters.
Hawarden was the first female photographer to receive critical recognition for creating technically perfect prints. She gained many admirers including Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She exhibited her work with the Photographic Society of London in 1863 and 1864 and was awarded the Society’s silver medal for both.
Lady Hawarden’s career as a photographer was restricted in two respects by virtue f her being a woman. Firstly, as a woman of her social position it was not considered appropriate for her to sell her photographs. Secondly, being a woman, she was forced to stay at home to work, unlike her male counterparts who would set off to explore distant foreign locations with their camera.
Nevertheless, she pushed new boundaries of art photography with her careful choice of props, clothing and use of mirrors. Her photograph’s ‘demonstrate immense technical innovation and she became quite the expert on indoor photography.
Lady Hawarden’s career proved to be very short as she died in 1865 at the age of 42. It has been suggested that her immune system may have been severely compromised from her constant exposure to photographic chemicals. Despite the brevity of her career, she had been prolific- producing 800 photographs in seven years.
Sources:
https://jvc.oup.com/.../lady-clementina-hawarden.../
https://www.vam.ac.uk/.../lady-clementina-hawarden-an...
HMS Tipperary, launched on 5 March 1915, was a Faulknor-class destroyer leader. It was sunk under German fire on this day in 1916 at the Battle of Jutland.
Originally ordered by Chilean Navy from the Royal Navy prior to the outbreak of World War One, the Tipperary was bought by the Royal Navy once war broke out. It was originally named Almirante Riveros by the Chileans but was renamed Tipperary by the Navy. It is unclear from available sources why it was called Tipperary. If you have any information on this, please let us know in the comments.
Tipperary led the 4th Flotilla at the Battle of Jutland under Captain C. J. Wintour. Tipperary and her squadron pressed home determined torpedo attacks on the German main battle line as it escaped across the rear of the British fleet during the night action, starting at approximately 23:20 on 31 May 1916.
The 4th Flotilla sank the German light cruiser SMS Frauenlob, but Tipperary and many of the other British destroyers were sunk or badly damaged.
HMS Tipperary was sunk on 1 June 1916 by fire from the secondary battery of the German dreadnought SMS Westfalen with the loss of 185 hands from her crew of 197. The wrecksite is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
Sources:
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/community/2581
https://military-history.fandom.com/.../HMS_Tipperary_(1915)
