John Burton Currie (born c1846, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk), was the son of Amelia and Dr. James Currie, a medical doctor and general practitioner.
John Currie’s middle name is sometimes recorded as “Burton”, at other times “Barton”. Dr Currie was the son of a surgeon from the town of Bungay in Suffolk. From East Anglia, Dr James Currie eventually moved to North London, where he established a medical practice. In 1881, Dr James T. Currie is recorded as a G. P. in the St Pancras district of London. Dr Currie, his wife Amelia, and their two children, John B. Currie and his sister Lavinia Currie (born 1863, St Pancras, London) are listed on the 1881 census return for 81 Warden Road, St Pancras, London. John B. Currie is entered on the census return as an “Artist”, aged 31, and his place of birth is given as London, instead of Great Yarmouth. By this date John B. Currie was operating a photographic studio at 14 Edgware Road, Paddington, London. John B. Currie remained at his Paddington studio until 1893.
In 1882, John Burton Currie married Mary Ashenhurst (born 1846, St Pancras, London), a woman in her mid thirties, who with her sister was previously engaged in the manufacture and selling of artificial teeth. Mary’s brother, John T. Ashenhurst was a London dentist. The two Ashenhurst sisters presumably had some business dealings with their dentist brother. In the 1881 census, Mary Ashenhurst is described as a “Tooth Seller (Dentist)” and her sister Annie Jessie Florence Ashenhurst gives her occupation as “Tooth Maker (Dentist)”.
At the time of the 1891 census, John Burton Currie and his wife Mary were still residing in London. No children are recorded on the census return. The census enumerator describes John B. Currie on the return as a forty-three year old photographer. At this time, John Burton Currie was still the proprietor of the photographic studio at 14 Edgware Road, Paddington, London. Around 1893, John Currie sold his Paddington studio to the London photographer George Wallis (1859-1909).
By the time the 1901 census was taken, John B. Currie and his wife Mary were residing at 13 Egerton Park Road, Bexhill-on-Sea. John B. Currie is described on the census return as “Photographer (own account)”, aged 54. Local trade directories do not list John B. Currie as a proprietor of a photographic studio in Bexhill and it appears that he worked primarily as an “Outdoor Photographer” during his stay at the seaside resort.
John B. Currie died in Lewisham in 1910 at the age of 64.