Wilkinson Sword
as The Wilkinson Sword Co of 27 and 28 Pall Mall (1903), then 53 Pall Mall, London, SW. Factory at Oakley Works, Acton, London, W. (1889)
as The Wilkinson Cutlery Co Ltd of Tudor House, Rathbone Place, Oxford Street, London, W1 - Manufacturers: The Wilkinson Sword Co, of Acton. (1929)
as The Wilkinson Sword Co Ltd of Oakley Works, Southfield Road, Acton Green, London, W4. Telephone: Chiswick 1247. Cables: "Swordproof, London" (1947)
of Sword Works, Southfield Road, Acton Green, London, W4 (1954)
of Birmingham
See Wilkinson Sword: Automotive for automotive (motorcycles and light cars)
1772 Henry Nock, who was an acclaimed gun maker, set up business in Ludgate Street, London.
1804 James Wilkinson, who had been an apprentice, became Nock’s partner after marrying Nock's daughter. Nock had been appointed Royal Gun makers to HM King George III and this was continued for the new proprietor.
1804 On Nock’s death, Wilkinson inherited the business.
James’s son, Henry, was responsible for building up the business as Wilkinson and Son. He subsequently moved the company to Pall Mall, in order to be close to its major customer, the Board of Ordnance. He extended the business from bayonet making to sword manufacturing.
1857 The government took over the production of its own firearm needs and after this the gun manufacturing part of the business declined.
1861 Henry died.
1879 By now, the business had moved to bigger premises in Chelsea and became the privately owned company called The Wilkinson Sword Co.
1889 Company incorporated.
1890s The company steadily expanded its product range. By the turn of the century over 5,000 products were sold, from bayonets and swords to cut-throat razors.
1898 The Wilkinson Sword safety razor was introduced.
The company diversified into a number of new products.
1900 Prospectus was issued for Wilkinson's Sword and Equipment Co. Ltd as a subsidiary of the Wilkinson Sword Co. Directors were Rudolph Kirschbaum, Henry Wilkinson Latham, Hermann Kirschbaum, and John Tolhurst Musgrave. 'The manufactory was for many years at Pall Mall, but, owing to the growth in business was removed first to Gray’s Inn-road, and, again, in 1837 to the Oakley Works, King's-road, Chelsea.' The Oakley Works fast became unsuitable owing to the increase of business and, due to the crowding of the works from want of sufficient space, the company acquired a valuable freehold site at Acton, W.
1903 Wilkinson's Sword and Equipment Co Ltd was removed from the register of companies[1]
1908 Started producing motorcycles and later cars
1914 Sword cutlers, gun and equipment makers. Specialities: everything for army or navy officers, outside cloths, guns, rifles, swords, revolvers. [2]
WWI. The company focused heavily on the war effort, with the provision of Armaments. Only about 250 Wilkinsons motorcycles were produced before the war brought the line to its end in the spring of 1916 when the Wilkinson company had to produce thousands of bayonets for the war effort.
1922 British Industries Fair Advert for Wilkinson's Rustproof Pruners with Sword Steel and Stainless Steel Blades. All parts interchangeable. (Stand No. D.12) [3]
1929 Listed Exhibitor - British Industries Fair. Safety Razors, Razors, Safety Razor Blades, Razor Strops, Scissors, Hunting and Sheath Knives, Nail Nippers, Sword Sticks, Pruning Shears and Scissors. (Stand No. J.10) [4]
WWII. For the Second World War, Wilkinson Sword manufactured aircraft fire protection systems, commando knives and armoured clothing, including the famous Flak jacket used widely by US army and Air Force personnel.
An anticipated return to razor production after the war was temporarily thwarted by a brass shortage. In the interim, the company expanded its garden tools range before resuming razor production.
1947 Listed Exhibitor - British Industries Fair. Manufacturers of Safety-Razors, Pruning-Shears, Nail-Nippers, Ice-Skates, Swords. (Olympia, Ground Floor, Stand No. D.1656) [5]
1954 Advert on this page for Garden Shears. [6]
1954 General Meeting of the The Wilkinson Sword Co was held at Acton
1955 The name of The Wilkinson Sword Co was changed to Wilkinson Sword Ltd
1956 Developed double-edge razor blade using Swedish stainless steel rather than a brass base, which revolutionized the market for razors[7]
1961 Swordsmiths, manufacturing Wilkinson Sword razor and razor blades and wide range of "Wilkinson Sword" garden tools. [8]
1973 Acquired Graviner (Colnbrook) Ltd with all rights to use of the Graviner name.
1973 British Match Corporation acquired the company to form Wilkinson Match; bringing the 2 diversified companies together had questionable logic although it would allow Wilkinson to make use of British Match's established distribution networks[9]. The merger was cleared by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission[10].
1973 Howden Group acquired Airscrew Fans from British Match[11].
1974 Lamson Industries acquired Setright Registers from British Match[12].
1977 Allegheny Ludlum Industries acquired 29 percent of the shares in the company from Swedish Match, who retained 3.9 percent[13]
1980 Wilkinson Match was taken over by an American company, Allegheny International
c.1987 The American parent became bankrupt.
1987 The Wilkinson Sword Group became a wholly owned subsidiary of Swedish Match after a Monopolies investigation[14].
Some parts of the company involved in match-making survive as the Swedish company Swedish Match. Other parts of the merged company involved in shaving products survive, and still use the Trade Name Wilkinson Sword in Europe; and the Schick Trade Name elsewhere.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The London Gazette 22 December 1903
- ↑ 1914 Whitakers Red Book
- ↑ 1922 British Industries Fair Advert ccxxiv; and p85
- ↑ 1929 British Industries Fair p181
- ↑ 1947 British Industries Fair p299
- ↑ [1] History World
- ↑ The Times, 24 May 1973
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ The Times, 24 May 1973
- ↑ The Times, 29 September 1973
- ↑ The Times, 13 December 1973
- ↑ The Times, 30 March, 1974
- ↑ The Times Dec. 20, 1977
- ↑ The Times Oct. 22, 1987