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You are here: Home / Culture / The Stunning Vintage Photos of Richard “Dickey” Colley

The Stunning Vintage Photos of Richard “Dickey” Colley

By Stephen Rutledge on July 24, 2019 4:04 am

These photographs are part of a collection belonging to Richard Colley, an Englishman who was called “Dickie” by his many friends. Most of the pictures are dated from 1922 – 1925, the others are dated 1932 and 1933.

Colley apparently lived an upper-class life. The photographs show him on vacations, and at parties, openings and costume balls. Most of his friends in his photo album go uncaptioned, but there is also photographic proof that he did know Dorothy Gish, Beatrice de Bourbon, who was married toConte Don Pietro Lucchesi Palli dei Principi di Campofranco, and Marie-José Charlotte Sophie Amélie Henriette Gabriell the wife of the gay King Umberto II, the last king of Italy.

Colley may also have had some sort of brief career as a dancer. He also seems to have used his mother’s surname. His parents were Gerald Douglas Best and Louisa Mary Colley.

The folks

His childhood home was The Grange at Canon Pyon in Herefordshire, where his parents still lived at the time of the photographs. He kept a flat in London and spent time in the early 1930s at a cottage in Kingston, and a house at Palm Beach, Florida.

At The Grange at Canon Pyon
Dickie and the boyfriend

He spent a lot of time in the company of a man identified only as Russell, quite clearly his boyfriend. The first trip together was a motor tour of England and Wales. Later they set off motoring together around Europe, visiting the South of France and Italy, travelling as far south as Naples and Capri. The couple also traveled together in Miami Beach and Hollywood.


Dickie with four Borzois
Dickie wet
Dickie, Russell and friends out motoring
Dickey and his monkey

The photographs offer an alluring peek into an era and a gay style of living long gone.

Dickie dancing with the bf.
The boys at some swell soiree

Dickie ready for Tennis

Dickie, stunning in black
Dickie in spots
Dickie in his best outfit
Dickie’s best drag
Russell at Mount Vesuvius
Russell at the Hotel Elysée, Rome, photo by Richard Colley

Russell in Miami
Dickie’s digs in London
With friends

How Dickie would like us to remember him

Source: The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography via Vintage Everyday, photos are in the public domain

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Filed Under: Culture, Drag, Fashion, Gay, Herstory, History, LBGTQ, Nightlife, Photography

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