Postcard C R Trueman, Neath

Description

C. R. Trueman
Photographer, Pamphleteer, Hawker and Eccentric!

During the first two decades of the twentieth century Clement Robert Trueman was a well known eccentric in the town of Neath until his expulsion from the town around 1919 whereupon he moved to Treboeth in Swansea.

He was a popular figure amongst the inhabitants of Neath and Swansea and has been described as ‘one of the last survivors of the frock coat and top hat epoch…with his little bag of mysterious documents.’
One employee at his photographic studio in Neath said that he would often been sent to rifle through the numerous legal books for his employer when Mr Trueman was once again taking someone or other to court, or if indeed he were defending himself against an accusation or pending law suit.

He also published postcards with equal vehemence and scandal, selling them while walking the streets of Neath without stopping with one foot off the pavement to ensure he could not be arrested for hawking!
a selection of postcards by C.R.Trueman produced from around 1902 to 1915. If there were a scandal in Neath involving public figures then you could guarantee Trueman would create a damning postcard or pamphlet about it, selling them as he walked around the town.
Eager townsfolk would look forward to Trueman’s propaganda and collect the cards at the height of postcard mania during the early decades of the twentieth century. The ‘monomaniac’ referred to on some of the cards is Trueman himself.