Abraham Dudkin

Biographical Sketch

Abraham Dudkin was born on 10th November 1876 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Abraham was the eldest son of at least fourteen children born to Mira and Moses Dudkin, a Jewish rabbi.

After serving two years in the Russian Army, Abraham Dudkin arrived in England around 1898. Abraham Dudkin began his new life in England as a tailor's assistant in the London's East End, but within a few years he had set up his own business, dealing in furs and drapery. By 1906, Abraham Dudkin had opened a fur business in Regent Street, Great Yarmouth and was importing furs from his native Russia with the assistance of family members. Around this time Abraham Dudkin adopted the name of Hurvitz. For a few years, Abraham Dudkin worked as an itinerant seller of furs and drapery under the name of Abraham Hurwitz. (Although Hurwitz was not a given family name, Abraham would later add Hurwitz as a middle name so that when he was listed in local trade directories he could be known as Abraham H. Dudkin. Abraham Dudkin's grand-daughter Bettina Walker, has confirmed that Hurvitz was not Abraham's middle name and the later styling of his name as "Abraham H. Dudkin" was really an affectation. Jonathan Walker has noted that it was not unusual for Jewish immigrants to add a middle name or initial to their real name so that the nomenclature appeared stylish or distinguished).

On 8th March 1908, Abraham Dudkin married twenty-three year old Rachel Hanchen Plaut (born 1885, Wehrda, Germany) at the Stoke Newington Synagogue in North London. Rachel's family had anglicized their surname from Plaut to 'Plant' and consequently Rachel's marriage to Abraham Dudkin was registered in the London district of Hackney under the name of 'Ray Plant'. When his wife fell pregnant the following year, Abraham Dudkin decided to abandon his itinerant way of life as a travelling fur dealer and settle permanently on the south coast of England.

Abraham Dudkin and his pregnant wife 'Ray' arrived in the seaside town of Brighton in August 1909. Abraham and Ray Dudkin set up home at 91 Upper North Street, Brighton, where their first child, Lewis Stanley Dudkin was born on 24th November 1909. By this date, Abraham Dudkin had established a fur business at 185 Western Road, Brighton under the name of Alfred Dudkin & Co.

Alfred Dudkin and his family were soon to be joined in England by Abraham's younger sister Bluma Dudkin, who, at the age of fourteen, had travelled alone from Siberia to England, arriving in London around 1910. At the time of the 1911 census, Abraham Dudkin (now generally known as "Alfred Dudkin") his wife 'Ray', and their one year old son Lewis, were residing at 7 Bedford Place, Brighton. Visiting the Dudkin family at the time of the 1911 census was one of Alfred Dudkin's younger sisters, who gives her name as 'Blanche' Dudkin. Alfred (Abraham) Dudkin's sister is described on the census return as an unmarried young woman of 18 from Russia, living on "Private Means". (Jonathan Walker has suggested that Bluma Dudkin and "Blanche Dudkin" are two versions of the same person).

In the 1911 census, Abraham Dudkin is recorded on the census return as 'Alfred Dudkin', a thirty-three year old "Furrier & Dealer". Alfred and Ray were doing well enough to employ a 'live-in' domestic servant, twenty-seven year old Lizzy Burgell from Horsham in West Sussex.

On 6th June 1913, Mrs Ray Dudkin gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Minnie Rosa Dudkin. By this time, Abraham Dudkin's fur business was flourishing and he was starting to diversify his commercial interests, investing in property and establishing a chain of photographic portrait studios. In 1912, Abraham Dudkin had acquired the Stickyback & Postcard Studio at 54 North Street, Brighton, previously occupied by the photographer Spiridione Grossi (1877-1921). Abraham Dudkin had also taken over a photographic portrait studio in Hampshire at 228 Commercial Road, Portsmouth.

Link: "Dudkin's Modern Studios of Brighton"