Edwin Brooker's career as a photographer in Southampton was short. The White's Directory for 1859 listed Brooker in the Photographers section at 16 Above Bar,and as a carver, guilder and photographer in the alphabetical list of trades people. The 1861 census recorded his occupation as carver and guilder; however, he may well have continued to take portraits after 1859. In the early 1860s Brooker and family moved to Doncaster. Brooker died in Cheltenham in 1899.

White's Directory, 1859