professional photographer, came to Victoria from England at the end of 1854, attracted by the gold rushes. In Melbourne he was taught to take photographs by Walter Woodbury , a result of their meeting when Spencer personally delivered a letter to Woodbury from their common home-town of Stafford, in Manchester. Later they went into partnership. According to a letter Woodbury wrote to his mother on 30 December 1854, they decided against starting up as photographers in Melbourne because the competition was too keen: 'there are already about twenty in it’. Instead, each put up about £30 with which they bought a horse, dray and tent and set off for the diggings. Stating that they might stay away for one or two years, Woodbury wrote: 'We calculate on clearing at least £100 a month between us, but it is best not to count our chickens before they are hatched. I shall be able to send you some nice views of the diggings … Spencer seems a nice quiet young man and I think we shall get along very well as mates from what I have seen of him’.
The plan was a failure and the partnership was soon dissolved, Woodbury returning to Melbourne and Spencer continuing to travel around the goldfields. On 1 August 1855 Woodbury was informing his mother that he had just seen Spencer again, that his luck had improved slightly after Woodbury left and that he was about to set up his own business on the diggings taking likenesses. With a certain pique, Woodbury noted that it was 'a good thing for him that he happened to learn the business from me as it is always capable of bringing in a living’.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
