tps.org.au

Elsewhere on the TPS BB I have inquired whether the "G.M.B." attribution sometimes found on real photo cards from the late 1940s (or thereabouts) were
produced by Geoffrey Bester (of Ash · Bester fame). BB member Des Beechey did some research on the topic and found that "G.M.B." definitely wasn't Bester.

see: http://tps.org.au/bb/viewtopic.php?f=6& ... 3741#p3350

Another Tassie postcard enthusiast visited my office today and we had a chat about the "G.M.B." mystery and he mentioned that he had a printed foldout photo
souvenir with "G.M. Breaden" as the publisher. Here's a couple of images from the folder kindly provided by M.W.
Well it looks for certain that G.M. Breaden is the owner of the initials that have had me puzzled for some time but who was he/she?

Joseph C. Breaden was a well known Hobart photographer and published real photo cards from before WWI through to c.1950. He used the
initials "J.C.B." and has an entry in Chris Long's book on Tasmanian photographers .... even Mrs. Breaden gets a mention there but not G.M. Breaden.

Can anyone shed some light on who G.M. Breaden was or provide some images of attributable cards, etc. ??

A quick look at Trove, the following was found, Mercury 12/9/45

Flight Officer G M Breaden of Waverly Av New Town, a RAAF prisoner of war in Germany for 16 months returns home.

He is listed as producing another Souvenir view folder of 16 views of Port Arthur.

In the Tasmanian Trade and Business Directory 1951, a D & M Breaden, 357 Main Road Glenorchy is listed under "Photographers General".

Tassie postcard enthusiast "R.A." has sent me some valuable information about G.M. Breaden as follows:

"Geoff Breaden was either J.C. Breaden's son or brother.

G.M. took over the business from J.C. when he retired, so you find some cards that were attributed to "J.C.B." reissued with "G.M.B." initials on them.
G.M.B. also appeared to continue the numbering system of those J.C.B. cards that were given numbers. I have several viewfolders published by G.M.B.
one of which is identical to a J.C.B. folder that I have which had been reprinted for G.M.B."

Geoffrey Malcolm Drysdale Breaden (1917-2002)

Geoffrey Malcolm Drysdale Breaden, usually given as G.M. Breaden, was born in Tasmania in 1917. He was the son of J.C. Breaden, who was also a photographer and publisher of postcards.

G.M. Breaden attended the Friends School in Hobart, and the Hobart Technical College. Subsequently he was employed by printers Cox Kay Pty Ltd, and the Government Printing Office. The electoral roll for 1943 gave his occupation as printer compositor.

G.M. Breaden joined the RAAF in 1941. He went to England in 1942 and became a navigator in the RAF, flying in Lancester bombers. In December 1943 he was navigator in a Lancaster bombing the German city of Magdeburg when the plane was badly damaged by a fighter attack and the crew bailed out. He was captured by held as a prisoner of war for 18 months, until the end of the war in 1945. His wartime experience is documented in detail in Patsy Adam-Smith’s book “Prisoners of War: from Gallipoli to Korea”.

G.M. Breaden returned to Hobart after the war and worked at The Mercury newspaper, then in the insurance industry, and then for most of his life as an accountant. He married Shirley Paice in 1946 and they had six children between them.

After his return to Tasmania in 1945 Breaden to have he settled down into low profile family life and did not appear in the newspapers. He inherited use of his father’s photograph collection and facilities, and from 1945 to about 1950 took photographs, published postcards and produced view folders and photo booklets.

G.M. Breaden died in Hobart in 2002.

About the G.M. Breaden Postcards

G.M. Breaden cards are real photographic prints. They are printed on either Kodak postcard-back paper or on plain back photographic paper. Some have a rubber-stamped back naming G.M. Breaden as the publisher.

Most G.M. Breaden cards have a neat caption on the front, in capital letters and underlined.

Breadens postcards were probably produced after his return from the war in 1945 up to about 1950. I have a view folder that he published containing 16 views of Hobart, which is annotated with “Monday 5 May, 1947”, presumably the purchase date. This gives a useful latest date of photography for the 16 photographs it contains. Although the folder is indicated as by G.M. Breaden, several of the photos it includes were published as postcards earlier under the authorship of his father, J.C. Breaden. I have also seen two cards captioned as by G.M. Breaden that are annotated as purchased in 1951.

I have put some of the Breaden cards on my website at http://beecheyspostcardhistory.org.au