The Maltonian Website - for Malton School

Frank Masser took many photos of Malton School groups during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. His son Ian attended Malton Grammar School, in the same class as Bruce Rolls (junior), in the 1950s. He appears in a photograph of the 1954 Football 1st XI.

Some comments on M&N Memories in response to my request for any information on Frank.

Nigel Sutherland
Frank was born 13th Feb 1884, in Whitwell. He died, aged 74, in 1959. His father, Isaac, was a butler in York. (Courtesy of Ancestry.)

Jane Myers
Frank and Belle were friends of my parents. They lived in the last house (I think) on Broughton Road. I believe his studio was above the shoe shop (now Ashley Cookes) on St Michael Street.

John Rolls
I recognise Ian who went to M.G.S. - he was about 4 years above our year.

Bruce Rolls
Ian Masser was in the same form as me at M G S. Their house was next to the school on Broughton Road and Frank had a studio just above the post office

John Blanchard (On a separate M&N Memories thread, 29 November 2020)
I'm trying to date a Malton Town Guide. It has a number of photographs attributed to 'Massers Studio'. I know that the original Massers Studio was at no. 2 St. Michael Street and I see it there in Kelly's 1937 Trade Directory. Does anybody know the year the studio opened or can help 'narrow it down?'

Responses to John's request suggest the studio in St. Michael's Street was opened at least in the early 30s (Kitty grove-Stephenson had a photo taken there in 1934). Howard Campion remembers it was still open in the late 1960s. David Wakeley took over Massers Camera Shop in Wheelgate in 1973, by which time the studio was closed. Olive White remembers working at the studio from 1955, by which time there was also the shop opposite. She recalls that Mr Masser "was an RAF pilot and lost a leg. He broke it once and my friend June and I had to wrap it up and send it to Roehampton. Much laughter as in those days all we had was brown paper string and sealing wax."