Man wearing an artificial leg, 1890-1910.

Studio photograph of a man wearing an artificial leg. The leg was manufactured by James Gillingham (1839-1924), a boot- and shoemaker based in Chard, Somerset. Gillingham first started making artificial limbs after a local man lost an arm firing a cannon for a celebratory salute in 1863. He then began making prostheses on a permanent basis and Chard eventually became a major centre of the British artificial limb industry.