Miss Louisa Ayles

Charles Ayles, the children’s father was born at Sturminster Marshall in Dorset, where his father, Henry Ayles, ran a bakery and grocery shop. As a youth Charles worked as a ‘Shopman’ in the family business (1861 census). By 1871 he had moved to London as a commercial traveller and was then boarding with Henry Reeves, a grocer in Mile End. Shortly afterwards he married Louisa Spicer.

In 1891 Louisa Ayles was 16, the eldest of the Ayles children. She is thought to be around 14 years of age in this portrait.