George Charles Beresford

Who was George Charles Beresford?

George Charles Beresford was a British studio photographer, originally from Drumlease, Dromahair, County Leitrim.

A member of the Beresford family headed by the Marquess of Waterford and the third of five children, he was the son of Major Henry Marcus Beresford and Julia Ellen Maunsell. His paternal grandfather was the Most Reverend Marcus Beresford, Archbishop of Armagh, youngest son of the Right Reverend George Beresford, Bishop of Kilmore, second son of John Beresford, second son of Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone.

Beresford was sent to Westward Ho! in 1877 and attended the United Services College. On leaving in 1882 he enrolled at the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill, and from there went to India in 1882 as a civil engineer in the Public Works Department. After four years he contracted malaria and returned to England to study art, eventually exhibiting at the Royal Academy.

Between 1902 and 1932 he worked from a studio in Knightsbridge at 20 Yeoman's Row, Brompton Road. Here he produced platinotype portraits of writers, artists and politicians who were celebrities of the time.