Sign alphabet exhibition – The manual alphabet card

The manual alphabet (Irish, American, French &c). For the deaf and dumb. H. Ash London, 18? [The style of the card suggests a date in the late 19^th Century, possibly ca 1887/8]

Harry Ash (1863-1934) was born in Bridgewater, Somerset.  He was deafened by scarlet fever aged 18 months.  His father was a railway coach-maker who moved to Swindon to find work.  Harry was sent to the London Asylum in the Old Kent Road when he was 11, later moving on to the Margate branch of the school.  He was for a time a designer at the Hogarth Works, Chiswick.

It is possible to follow something of his life by using the census and various documents published in his lifetime.