Dates

• Existence: fl. 1895 - 1958

Biography

William Gammie set up a commercial photographic studio in 1898 at 15 High Street, Turriff, N.B. [North Britain?], where he had a newsagent's business. He published photographs of the area surrounding Turriff as postcards, and was also a portrait photographer. The photograph held in the RCS collection is of a newly elected Resident member of the Royal Colonial Institute, John A. Douglas, in 1895 (RCI/1/7/29).

Over the next half century William Gammie and his son, also William, took many of the old Turriff photographs which have survived, both in private collections and in the Aberdeenshire Archives. The elder William died in 1958 and his son, who took over the business, died without heirs.

Gammie's photos were used by other postcard publishers, certainly including George Geddes, some of whose cards are marked 'G Geddes, Aberchirder / Photo by Gammie, Turriff'.

Sources:

Typescript copy of the Society's 'Index to Photographers' which had misleadingly assumed that N.B. referred to New Brunswick, Canada. NB probably referred to North Britain, as Turriff is in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Also the subject of Gammie's photograph, John A. Douglas, lived near Pitlochry in May 1894 at the time of his election as a Resident member of the Royal Colonial Institute.

Email corresondence with Andrew Mason of The Photographer Studio and Gallery, Morpeth NSW, Australia (16 April 2014 and 26 April 2014).

Website: Aberchirder postcards, which refers to a postcard by William Gammie of Turriff franked 31/12/1902. Available at: http://www.foggieloan.co.uk/44library/postcards/collection.htm (Accessed: 24 April 2014 and 26 April 2014).