Albert Betts' sketches of the buildings and landscape in the parish of Mortlake (which included East Sheen and a large portion of Richmond Park) at the turn of the 20th century provide an invaluable record of the area. Some of his scenes are recognisable today, others have changed in every respect. But outside Mortlake, Albert Betts is unknown.

Albert and his twin brother Edwin were born on 13 August 1835 at 38 Coleshill Street in central London, a five-storey terraced house which the Betts family shared with three other households. The house still exists as 99 Eaton Terrace in what is now Belgravia, but at the time of Albert's birth was thought of as Pimlico. There is no birth certificate for the twin boys, as registration of births was not introduced until 1837. However, there is a record of their being baptised on 6 September 1835 in St Luke's Church, Chelsea. Charles Dickens was married there the following year. Albert and Edwin's parents, John and Caroline Betts, were tailors. The censuses record that they employed staff, suggesting they ran their own business, but it was not a sufficiently prominent one to be listed in the trade directories of the time.

Edwin died some time before the Census of 1841. By the time of the 1851 Census, Albert was a barrister's clerk; his father had died the previous year, and his mother was running the tailoring business, still living at the house in Coleshill Street. We have no record of Albert being taught drawing, but it seems highly likely that he would have received training in drawing to be able to undertake the technical work he did later in his career.

In June 1859 Albert married Elizabeth Julia Bruce in Bethnal Green. Elizabeth had been born in the village of West Tisted near Petersfield, Hampshire, the daughter of an agricultural labourer. Their first son, Robert, was born in Islington in 1860. The 1861 Census records the Betts family as living at 15 Clifton Grove, Gravesend. Albert was described as a lithographic artist. By the time their daughter Julia was born later in 1861, the family were back in Middlesex. Their second son, Herbert, was born there in 1864.

Albert and his family moved to Mortlake in 1865 and their two youngest children, Alfred and Isabella, were born there. For several years they lived at Holly Cottage, at the northern end of Sheen Lane. Sometime between 1871 and 1876 they moved to 66 Mortlake High Street. The house no longer survives; it was demolished when the High Street was widened in the 1960s. Albert's occupation is recorded in the censuses as a lithographer in 1871, lithographic artist in 1881, a construction draughtsman in employment in 1891 and a draughtsman (engineer) working on his own account from home in 1901. The Kelly's directories of the time listed him as an artist. There are some secondary references to Albert teaching drawing at Mortlake National Schools but there is no firm evidence of this. Elizabeth is described as a professor of languages in the 1881 Census and more grandly as a "professeuse de langues" in the 1891 Census. In 1871 she was running a day school by Mortlake Green.

The first work of Albert Betts that survives is his 1877 lithograph of the Queen's Head. It is a richly coloured picture showing the riverside pub which survives today as a private residence. There is a gap of at least 15 years between the Queen's Head lithograph and the surviving series of Albert's pen and ink drawings. Albert made some 40 drawings of the buildings and landscapes around the parish of Mortlake between 1892 and Some, such as those of the Wigan Hall, Bog Gate and Christ Church, are highly detailed drawings which suggest a professional architectural draughtsman. Other drawings, such as the Five Alls and Sheen Gate, are more impressionistic sketches with much emphasis on the surrounding flora. Cows, horses, dogs, carts, and ordinary people of various ages populate many of the drawings. Albert's birds, skies, trees, picket fences and lamp posts have a character which helps one readily identify a Betts drawing. The titles of several of the drawings are intriguing: Vanishing Palewell, Sub-sunk Mortlake and Old Mortality; and Albert often prefers his own names for the buildings in his drawings: Impey's House, The Last House in the Village, Bagot's House rather than their accepted names.

Albert's last drawing is dated 18 December 1903 and shows the recently erected maltings building of Watney's brewery with The Ship pub beside it. This is a very detailed drawing and one wonders whether Albert, at the age of 68, completed the whole drawing by the river on a winter's day, or when he had returned home.

Albert's output came to an abrupt end in 1903. Some time in 1904 or 1905 he moved from 66 Mortlake High Street, where he had lived with his wife Elizabeth, their sons Robert and Alfred, their daughter Julia, son-in-law Francis Haddock and their grandchildren. Francis and Julia Haddock moved to 9 Trehern Road where they became the householders and Albert and Elizabeth were living with them. On the evening of Wednesday 28 February 1906 Albert had his tea at quarter past five and went out at quarter to six, as he usually did for "a walk around the houses". At a quarter past nine he was found lying dead on the side of the railway line by St Mary's Grove footbridge (a few hundred yards from Richmond Station). The police were unable to find out how Albert came to be on the line but thought that he was knocked down by a train which flung him to the side of the track. There were no signs of a struggle and Albert never suggested "making away with himself". The inquest was held on 2 March at which the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

Julia Haddock gave evidence which tells us a little more about her father in his last years. Albert had been in fairly good health since he had been living with her, but four months previously he had begun to suffer from loss of memory. When he was on business, Julia said, he used to travel from Mortlake to Waterloo. On several occasions he had been found on the railway, and once she had to pay his fare. Because of these memory losses, she had put his name and address inside his coat pocket.

Albert Betts is buried in the Old Mortlake Burial Ground close to the gate to Avenue Gardens. The grave also has a memorial to Elizabeth, who died in April 1906, and to Francis Haddock who died in April 1914. The name of Caroline Julia Haddock was added later; she died in Vancouver, Canada in 1951 aged 89.