Advert for Alfred Seaman’s business. Source: SGCT.
Alfred Seaman was born in East Lexham, Norfolk and followed his father’s trade and became a bricklayer. In 1863 he married Elizabeth Dennis and the couple had four sons, born in various locations as the couple moved around. Elizabeth died in 1874 and in 1876 Alfred married Mary Babbs who sadly died shortly afterwards. The widowed Alfred then moved with his teenage sons to Whittington in Derbyshire. Seeing a good opening in nearby Chesterfield, he used the knowledge from his hobby of photography to establish a photographic studio in a wooden hut on the corner of Brewery Street and Tapton Lane.
Alfred married Martha Ann Else in 1882 and this marriage produced five more sons and a daughter. The business prospered and this rapid increase meant he had to open new premises as well as making considerable improvements and enlargements to his existing ones.
By 1891 Seaman’s four eldest sons were all working in the business and the family opened a new shop in Alfreton, new studios on Fargate and 115 Pinstone Street in Sheffield and another in Leeds. In all eight of Seaman’s sons went on to make their livings as photographers. The Sheffield business, set up in 1896, continues to trade on London Road.
Alfred Seaman was a popular and familiar figure at photographic events and social gatherings, always with his camera and genial smile. For the last two years of his life his health declined and for his final twelve months he was practically confined to his home on Carter Knowle Road. He died there of a heart attack in 1910.
Alfred Seaman and his third wife Martha were buried in the Anglican area of the Cemetery in plot C1 143.
You can read more about the photographers in the Cemetery in the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust’s publication Beyond the Lens.