Charles Castleman

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Charles Castleman

by Camille Silvy
albumen print, 12 April 1861
Purchased, 1904
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax52395

Sitterback to top

  • Charles Castleman (1807-1876), Lawyer and Chairman of the London & South Western Railway. Sitter in 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

  • Camille Silvy (1834-1910), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 14313 portraits, Sitter in 24 portraits.

Placesback to top

Events of 1861back to top

Current affairs

Death of Prince Albert, from typhoid fever. Queen Victoria goes into a long period of mourning, withdrawing from public duties, and becomes known by the satirical title 'Widow of Windsor'.

Art and science

Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management is published by her husband Sidney, who successfully maintained the Beeton brand after his wife's early death seven years later. The highly popular book, containing recipes and advice for housekeeping, appealed to the Victorian belief that a woman's role was managing the home.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company is founded, marking the start of the arts and crafts movement.

International

The American civil war begins after the Confederate army attacks Union forces at Fort Sumter in April. The Confederates, comprised of eleven southern states who seceded from the Union over the right to independence on issues such as abolition, are presided over by Jefferson Davis, formerly senator of Mississippi. Although the Union had early successes, the Confederates' victory at Bull Run sets the Union up for a long, four-year war.

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Colin Divall

30 July 2018, 15:34

This is probably Charles Castleman (1807-76), a Dorset (Wimborne) solicitor, leading promoter of the Southampton & Dorcheser Railway (enabling act 1845, opened June 1847), director (from 1855), deputy chairman (from 1859) and chairman (1872-75) of the London & South Western Railway.

There is only one other known contemporary image of Charles, a sketch believed to be based on a photograph taken in Weymouth much earlier in life, perhaps in his 30s. To my eyes, a comparison between the two suggests that on the balance of probabilities they are of the same man. It is also relevant that NPG Ax52539 (Image 3139) of 'Mrs Charles Castleman' is of a woman who could be in her 30s: Charles's third wife (m. 1859), Isabel Swinburne, would have been around 34 in 1861.