Postcard collectors often theme their collections into different subject areas. In the recent edition of the Picture Postcard Monthly, a magazine for collectors all over the world, a photographer from Ross-on-Wye is featured.

David Ransom has contributed an article to the magazine entitled ‘The Barber Photographers of the New Zealand Shipping Company.’ which included postcards produced by Henry George Keyse of Ross.

In the article Mr Ransom explains that he began collecting postcards which illustrated the history of the New Zealand Shipping Company, and the photogenic areas it operated in, as a sideline to his Pitcairn postcard collection. He found that many of the pictures were taken by the ship’s barbers, who produced postcards for sale to passengers, and this developed into a separate and very informative collection.

Following the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 there was great interest in icebergs, and Mr Ransom has one postcard which shows a South Pacific iceberg with the initials HGK, which stand for Henry George Keyse.

Mr Ransome has discovered that Henry Keyse was born in Ross in October 1979. He is listed as a hairdresser on the 1901 census. He was employed on a retainer of just one shilling a month on the Remuera, where he had to rely on income from hairdressing and the sale of souvenirs to make a living.

Mr Ransome also found Henry employed on board the Tongariro in 1905 but he said that Henry was mostly associated with the Remuera from 1913-1929, but he has also found him on several other ships.

He adds that the most famous pictures taken by HGK are those of Pitcairn Island. He said they command high prices among collectors and it is these which inspired his research to discover the true identity of HGK.

The last recored voyage he has found for Henry is in 1945 when he was 63 and still working as a barber on board the Rangitata.

Henry died in Susex in 1967 aged 86, his death certificate records that he was a retired master hairdresser.

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