Charles Alexander Johns's observatory

An albumen print portrait of the botanist, social historian and educator Charles Alexander Johns (1811-1874), who was the author of the best-selling book Flowers of the Field (1853).

Johns, who ran a prep school at Winton House, Andover Road, Winchester and had been second master of Helston Grammar School under Derwent Coleridge, was also a president of Winchester Literary and Scientific Society.

His daughter Katie worked alongside Annie Besant in the East End. She ended her days as the much-loved Matron of the Central Hindu College Boarding House in Benares.

Photographer unidentified.

Dated 'Winchester 1870' on the album page.