Greetings. I found your forum just now after googling search terms for my g-g grandfather Harry (or Henry) Horatio Deville (born 1851). I haven't come across a Carlton Horatio Deville before, but then my searches stopped with the disappearance of Horatio Deville. (born 1875 in Mexborough, near Doncaster).
It makes sense to me that Carlton was a theatrical painter - if he was descended from Horatio Deville. Horatio was a painter and decorator who worked in Mexborough for his maternal uncle, Walter Nicholson. At some point he upped and left after he discovered his wife had been unfaithful (this would be Kate White). The last I knew of him was that he had a son named George.
Horatio's father was my g-g grandfather, Harry Horatio. Harry grew up in the theatre as his parents worked with a travelling theatre co. around the north of England. Harry was also a violinist and a set painter and his father (Henry Clifton - Deville was an assumed name and later became actual) was also a set painter. So it's highly likely Carlton learned the trade in England. HH Deville, my 2x, also disappeared, ran off and left his family and children. Quite an exhausting family to track, but do reply if you have any questions.
