Yeovil people
Clement White
Watchmaker & Jeweller of High Street
Clement White was born in Corsham, Wiltshire, in 1876, the son of butcher Emanuel White (b 1820) and his wife Sarah (b 1833). In the 1881 census Emanuel, Sarah and Clement were living in Old Asylum Court, Corsham, but in the 1891 census Clement was listed as a visitor in the home of watchmaker and jeweller John Hazelhurst at Weston-super-Mare.
By 1901 Clement had moved to Peterborough, Northamptonshire where he was working as a Jeweller's Manager and living at 8 Narrow Street with a housekeeper and an assistant.
In the autumn of 1904 Clement married Kate Wenlock (b 1876) originally from Stanground, Huntingdonshire, at Peterborough. In the 1911 census they were listed at 19 Narrow Street, Peterborough with their two sons; Cyril Francis (b 1906) and Bernard Clement (b 1908) as well as his father-in-law, sister-in-law, niece and a domestic servant. Clement still gave his occupation as a Jeweller's Manager.
Later that year, however, Clement White moved his family to Yeovil where he established his home and shop at 8 High Street. He was listed as a Watchmaker and Jeweller of 8 High Street in Whitby's Yeovil Almanack Advertiser of 1911. His last listing in a Yeovil trade directory was in Kelly's Directory of 1935.
Clement white died in Yeovil in 1953 at the age of 77.
gallery
This colourised photograph of High Street dates to about 1914, by which time the Town Hall clock tower had been built. The building at the far end is Stuckey's Bank that predated the present bank building. Clement White had been living above his shop premises - seen at right with the flag pole - since 1911.
From my
collection
A late 1930s postcard albeit posted in 1943 (the Medical Hall is still there although it was destroyed by bombing in 1941) looking across the Borough with the shop of Clement White at left. Photographed from King George Street.
From my
collection
Clement White's simple and stylish advertisement in a Yeovil Guide of the late 1920s
From my
collection
A tea caddy spoon, 3½" (88mm) long, marked and sold by Clement White.
From my
collection
Detail of the above tea caddy spoon.
A set of silver-handled knives, Sheffield-made in 1933 and sold by Clement White. The knives were made by Emile Viner in a Classic Art Deco Harley design. The blades are marked 'Stainless Deluxe' and 'Clement White, Jeweller, Yeovil' while the silver handles are hallmarked.
An advertisement placed in the Western Gazette's edition of 14 December 1934.
From my
collection
A postcard of the Borough dated 1953 and clearly taken on a Sunday morning, with Clement White's shop at 8 High Street at left.
From my
collection
A receipt for a diamond ring dated October 1960.
Almost the same view, seen from King George Street in the mid-1960s.
From my
collection
Another postcard, dated 1967, looking to the junction with Silver Street and Middle Street.
