James J. Sterrico

James J. Sterrico

James J. Sterrico was a retired organist and pianoforte tuner turned local dealer in musical instruments who also took an active interest in amateur photography. He resided at 18 Scud Hill with his wife Charlotte, three daughters Mary, Julia, Ernestina and son James who helped him with his music business.

In 1902, J.J. Sterrico produced a set of photographs, which was later printed and published by Gale & Polden Ltd, under the title ‘Views of Gibraltar.’ The collection comprised of a series of monochrome photographs of what the publishers described as ‘Its Barracks, New Dock Works, and All Objects of Interest in the Town and Vicinity’, and sold for one shilling.

The firm Gale and Polden was a well-known British printer and publisher founded by James Gale in 1868 when a bookshop at No 1 High Street, Old Brompton near Chatham Barracks. Through his contacts with the Headquarters of the Chatham Military District Gale obtained a printing contract for the printing of the Garrison Directory.

In 1875, Thomas Ernest Polden joined the company and his extensive knowledge of different printing processes made the business very successful. Polden went out from Chatham to the garrisons or dockyards including Gibraltar, publicising the name Gale and Polden to the British Army and Navy.

In 1892, the company was incorporated as Gale & Polden Ltd, with a share capital of £30,000 in £5 shares.

Unusually, the shares were offered to ordinary soldiers. By then the company was already supplying printed forms and other stationery to about 400 military canteens, 100 officers' messes, 200 sergeants' messes, and 250 libraries, recreation rooms and regimental institutes throughout both the Army and Navy.

The well-known Gale & Polden Military Series and other educational works were in use by Military Educational Department and by the London and other school boards, and in the colonial forces.

James Sterrico, meanwhile, retained all rights to his photographic collection some of which were sold as postcards, which was proving an increasingly popular and lucrative market by the turn of the century.

At least one Sterrico photograph, the entrance to the Hotel Reina Cristina in Algeciras, was sold as a postcard by the publisher Ernesto Ramos in Madrid.

This postcard is included at the end of the page for reference.