The People of Gibraltar

1891 - Samuel Bourne - Passage to India


Samuel Bourne was a 19th century British photographer who is best known for his work in India from 1863 to 1870. Two albums of his work were presented to Robert Walpole, the Secretary to the Calcutta Exhibition of 1883/84, both of them largely made up of a large number of his Indian photographs. 


Samuel Bourne

One of the albums, however, also includes several of Gibraltar. Although the Indian photos and the Gibraltar ones are undated, there is one - that of the ship in which he returned to Australia - which is dated 1891. If so, then the photos cannot have been taken earlier than this and it seems possible that the ones of Gibraltar were taken during this later date.




Grand Parade with the Assembly Rooms in the foreground


Gardiner's Battery


The Rock - the large coal hulk on the left is probably The Three Brothers, in its day the largest sailing ship in the world


The SS Nuremberg, the ship Samuel Bourn sailed in when he returned to Gibraltar in 1891