James Yates (c.1846-1929)

The Leeds Mercury reports the death of James Yates in 1929, the obituary states that “for many years Mr Yates travelled the country in a caravan as a photographer. During the summer he was a personality on the sands between Scarborough and Scalby Mills.” In 1889 he was described as a ‘struggling Scarborough photographer’ in an article in the South Eastern News that record that he had wheeled his dead wife 50 miles to Sand Hutton from Scarborough for her own funeral. A report three days later in the same paper records that £23 17s 1/2d were raised for Yates to clear his debts. Another £5 was raised to help him to purchase a new caravan to allow him to continue his open air photography at Castle Hill in 1890.