Supply of army uniforms

[jbml]

Family tradition has it that my great grandfather took his wife and six youngest children to Ireland for the duration of the 1939 - 1945 war, leaving my grandfather and one of his brothers to run the family clothing business, which had a contract for the supply of army uniforms.

I am interested to investigate this further. What proportion of the British Army was clothed by my family (i.e. were they a significant contributor to the war effort, or just one of many thousand small concerns contributing in a very minor way only? Were there complaints about the quality or were they first class products? And so on and so forth.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to which archive might hold the appropriate records, should they still exist? Would this have been a War Office contract or a Ministry of Supply contract? I am, to say the least, intrigued by all this ... but don't have a clue where to start looking!!

[MaecW]

The name and location of the business would help to narrow the search 

[ScouseBoy]

Civilian clothes were not manufactured in such large quantities as before the war.

Therefore production of civilian clothes was diverted into manufacture of military uniforms.

[km1971]

Here is a link to the supply from early 1939, but when it was obvious war was inevitable. It is unlikely that one manufacturer would be given the bulk of orders. They would not have the equipment nor staff; and it would make sense to spread the production over a large number of sites.

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1939/may/16/uniforms-territorials]

You could check if the Wholesale Clothing Manufacturers' Federation of Great Britain still exists, and if they have an archive.

Ken

[jbml]

The name and location of the business would help to narrow the search 

The name of the business was probably Burrows & Co, and the location was East End of London. Whether the business had been incorporated or not is an unresolved question. There is correspondence with the bank suggesting that my great grandfather was still trading in partnership with his wife (which is certainly how the business had started out); and then there are other documents describing his occupation as "Company Director" and "Managing Director".

[ScouseBoy]

What was his religion and nationality?  That could have a bearing on his desire to escape to a neutral country, perhaps?