Waterlow & Sons (Printers)

[dave6023]

Hi Steve

My father (William S Hoare) was a member of the Waterlows (Dunstable) Rifle Club and I have 2 certificates confirming that he won competitions in September 1941 and February 1945. I would think that this would have been mentioned in WandS. If you find anything I'd love to see a scan, especially if there is a photo of him.

I have attached a scan of one of the certificates which may have possibly been printed at Waterlows

Regards
Dave

My grandfather worked for Waterlow and Sons after the war for a considerable time. I'm just moving house and have found all his old 'wandS' in house magazines - well there more like books really - from 1946 - 1961. I have what appears to be the first copy which has no title as it had only just been started. Mr. Philip Waterlow invites people to write in with a suitable title with the winner receiving 2 guineas! Absolutely fascinating and I dare say some of you guys on here will have photos of relatives in them. I will get around to having a good look through them all at some point so if you have any names you'd like me to keep a look out for, let me know.
Cheers,
Steve

[davethearchivist]

I have a small press which has what I thought may be the makers badge, marked Waterlow & Sons London, but after finding this thread it may be an owners badge or they did make their own tooling and at least one item has survived.
I have taken some pictures of it and placed them at
http://www.collection.archivist.info/archive/DJCPD/PD/2011/2011_02_24_waterlow_press_tool/
The badge is pictured below. It had a repaint at some time in the past and that paint layer is chipped showing a typical black with gold lining that printing presses were in the old days.

[juliebak01]

My grandfather worked for Waterlows in their London premises in for many years. He was apprenticed to them in 1929 and continued on as a master printer until he emigrated to Australia in 1962.  He continued working for them during the war years (very hush hush, I believe). Would love to know if there was mention of his leaving in the company's yearbook. His name Sidney ROE.

[framak]

I was apprenticed at Waterlow  & Sons in 1946. The works were in  George Street, Dunstable, Beds. It was a huge works with  all types of printing. Letterpress, Litho, Gravure. It had a large Composing room all kinds of binding and other operations. They had plants in London for Stamps and Banknotes. There was a purpose built plant at Park Royal where they Printed the Radio Times and The Listener.

[viach65]

I am new to Rootschat and have only just discovered this thread - better late than never:).  I may well be able to help with the discussion/questions re Waterlow & Sons and where any records now are.  My grandfather joined the company as a compositor in 1901 and stayed there until he retired in 1945.  His last position was as Works Manager of the London factory.

In 1960, aged 80, my grandfather wrote to the company asking for financial assistance as he had been asked by the management to give up his union card when he helped with negotiations (in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral!) during a printers' strike and so lost his printers' pension.  The company had promised to pay him a personal pension themselves but this did not materialise due to changes in management.  In my grandfather's letter he says:

"Unfortunately nearly all the records .........were destroyed in the fire when the Finsbury Factory was destroyed by enemy action in WW2".

In the letter my grandfather details the 1404  employees in his charge at Finsbury by job and sex although not by name   
 

[dave6023]

Hi viach65

It's possible that my father, my grandfather and my grand uncle all worked with your father.
My father was a monotype operator and my grandfather and grand uncle were a packer and a warehouseman respectively.
My father did move to the Dunstable factory, sometime before the start of WW2 as he was an ARP warden with the Bedfordshire Civil Defence.

Regards
Dave

[viach65]

Hi Dave:

Yes, I'm sure they would have been there at the same time.  In my grandfather's letter he states that on 14 August 1939 he was responsible for 323 male compositors (and 5 female) at Finsbury, 19 men (and 47 female) in the warehouse and 48 men (and 1 female) packers as well as all the other staff such as printers, binders, folders, watchmen, etc etc making up the 1,404 personnel.  A monotype operator was a compositor who used a specific machine, I believe.
My grandfather was on a firewatch rota at the factory during WW2 and although not on duty when the factory was hit, he was phoned and had to dash there to help the firefighting and try and rescue what they could.
He also used to visit the Dunstable plant on a regular basis.
Regards

[vosh]

I have a Waterlow and Sons brass and iron Book Press, I bought it from a university which was a teachers college in Australia,I have just recently relocated to Iceland and have bought it with me and was just looking up the makers name to find info on restoring it back to its former glory and came across this forum.
It is marked with the following on a small brass plaque.

Waterlow and Sons
Limited
London Paris

I have attached a pic.

[viach65]

Following on from my previous posts, there is an excellent, comprehensive and well researched family history of the Waterlow family that includes a good history of their various companies and businesses at:

www.jaggers-heritage.com/waterlow-family-of-london.phps