Basil Douglas Barr-Hamilton – Laundryman
By his grandson, Robin Barr-Hamilton

Basil, the son of William H Barr-Hamilton, a curate in the Church of England, was born in Brixton in 1879.  After his father’s early death he attended the Clergy Orphan School for Boys in Canterbury, and then the Grammar School in Great Yarmouth.  At the age of 20 he was in Greenwich where he was working as a draper’s assistant.  After his marriage in 1902 to Ethel Richards, he moved to Stoke-upon-Trent, to become a laundry engineer.  We may suppose the change in career was inspired by two factors: firstly, two of his sisters, Emma and Mary, who had attended All Hallows Orphanage in Ditchingham, Norfolk, and surely become familiar with laundry routine, were in 1901 working as traditional laundresses in Loddon, Norfolk; and secondly, an awareness that the mechanised steam laundry was an expanding industry and the future for laundering.
 
The first two children of the marriage were born in Stoke-upon-Trent: Basil Francis in 1903 and Eileen in 1904.  In about 1906 the family returned to London to live in Asylum Road, very near Ethel’s parents.  The evidence for this is the inclusion of Basil’s name in the 1907 electoral register, but not in the 1906 register – bearing in mind that at that time the register was compiled in the latter half of the preceding year.  There is no indication of what he did while in London, but at the end of 1906 or very early in 1907 they moved on to Southwold, a seaside town in Suffolk, where Basil took up a post as laundry manager: the company, in 7 Station Road, had been called Southwold Steam Laundry Co.  It was there that the next child, Muriel, was born in February 1907.  Eric arrived in July 1908.

There is a possible inconsistency in the records, as Kelly’s directory of 1908 tells us that a Mr Jennings was the laundry manager then.  The birth certificate for Muriel allows us to estimate Basil’s move from London quite accurately; but we can be less sure of the accuracy of Kelly’s.  The inconsistency would be explained by a failure to keep the records for the Directory up to date, and that Mr Jennings had preceded Basil as manager: probably Jennings left the post around the end of 1906.

Olive came along in May 1913 and at this time Basil’s occupation was stated as laundry proprietor, so it seems he took over the business at some point between 1908 and 1913.  The name (from the photograph) appears to have been simply Southwold Laundry.

Alexander was born in Brighton in November 1915.  The family had moved there at some time between 1913 and 1915.  Undoubtedly the outbreak of war in 1914 would have severely affected the tourism of the town and hence the demand for laundry services.  The laundry continued for a time under the name Campling Ltd - Steam Laundry, Dyers and Dry Cleaners. 

Few records can be found of Basil’s later life.  He died in 1946, at Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex.