Robert George Murduck

Photograph No. 0006

Lake's Posting & Livery Stables, Sidmouth

Murduck Photo No. 0006 - Lake's Livery Stable, Sidmouth

This is reputedly one of Robert George Murduck's earliest known photographs, even though there is no attribution as the image was found. The photograph reputedly shows a scene outside the London and Bedford Booking Office opposite the London Hotel in Sidmouth, Devonshire, with coaches maintained by Lake's Posting and Livery Stables.

This digital image - possibly an early real photo postcard image, was found in the Usenet Genealogy forum "soc.genealogy.britain" in 2000, just as it is seen here. When initially posted to the Usenet site, this photograph thought to have been taken in the late 1890s, although this presently seems improbable. It is typical of the grand staged shots R G is noted for. The current circumstances of the original image are not known.

John Lake had operated a 'fly' business - stables and carriages, on Fore Street in Sidmouth, from at least 1890. A native of Exeter, born in about 1846, he and his family lived at Marlborough Place in 1891. His oldest son Lewis John Lake appears to have been the principal proprietor of the enterprise by 1901. At that time he was said to have been a 'Cab Proprietor' who had also been born in Exeter. In 1911 Lewis John Lake was described as a 'Carriage Proprietor', and in both instances he was said to have been an 'employer'. Lewis John Lake was also a Mason, which may have accounted for some of his association with Robert George Murduck. Lake had been initiated in to the Lodge of Perseverance in Sidmouth (Lodge No. 164) in 1905, when he was 34 years old. Lewis John Lake died at Fore Street, Sidmouth, on 10 February 1924, and left a reasonably valued Estate to his wife Katherine. Lewis John Lake himself had no sons to take over his business after his demise. 

All things considered, it would seem probable that the above photograph was taken some time after R G's move to Exmouth and assumption of Carlile's business in the spring of 1901, and before the first of July 1912, when motorized vehicles came in to use for distribution and delivery of post office material.