Robert Thompson Crawshay was one of the Crawshay 'Iron Kings' and Ironmaster of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. Born in 1817, he was the fourth in a line of Crawshay Ironmasters, taking over as the Ironmaster of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks upon his father's retirement. At the age of 42 Robert's health began to deteriorate after suffering from a bout of meningitis and a stroke, leaving him totally deaf. To distract from this he took up photography. He made many of his fisherwomen photographs in the spring of 1868.