2002/027

The bulk of this collection consists of a series of memory books compiled by Alice Payne, and recording her family's life in China in the first half of the 20th century. The volumes include photographs and other memorabilia eg theatre programmes, menus, leaflets, newscuttings etc. This catalogue was produced with support from the National Cataloguing Grants Programme for Archives

11 boxes

A large number of the memory books cannot be produced because the ink used for the captions is fugitive and needs to be treated.

Open

None

Collection

The Payne family lived in Tientsin (Tianjin) during the first half of the 20th century. Alice Bryson (1884-1973) who put together the photograph albums in this collection, married Howard Payne in 1907. Alice was the daughter of Thomas Bryson (1844-1936) a missionary with the London Missionary Society, who first travelled to China in the 1860s, but later settled in Tientsin. Thomas Bryson married Isabella Carruthers, and they brought up their family, including Alice, in China. Howard Payne (1877-1942) was a merchant with Collins and Company, and was based in Tientsin from 1904. He was also a Director of the Taku Tug and Lighter Company, and from 1902-1907, a volunteer with the Tientsin Volunteer Fire Brigade. One of their daughters, Margaret, married Clifford Jeans in 1949 a civil engineer who worked in North Borneo (see 2001/141).