William Charles Thomas, bootmaker of Balham

I know no more of W.Thomas than the brief mention on this photograph.  A search of census records for south London would take a while but might be illuminating.  Someone may like to try and post the results!

UPDATE: Deaf Heritige @DeafHeritageUK looked him up – he was at Margate deaf school in the 1901 census – William Charles Thomas (b.1886).  This shows how we can begin from a photograph and start to build a picture of someone’s life.  I expect trade directories would help as well, and perhaps local newspapers.

Armed with the extra information, I have quickly established that he was born in nearby Clapham, married a girl called Minnie Pointen in 1907, and had a (hearing) son William Alfred Robert Thomas in early 1909.  The 1911 census tells us he was living at 90 Gillingham Road, Gillingham, and that he was ‘deaf and dumb’ from the age of 9 months.  His wife Minnie was born in Elephant and Castle and was deaf from the age of 10.  As she was three years older than him, born in 1883, she would have lost her hearing circa 1893.   I have not located Minnie’s birth record or found her in the 1891 or 1901 census.

Here is a close up of him.