Contents

Consolidation

There was, at that time, a small producer of drums who manufactured for the Trade on a small scale.  Known then as Furzer & Cutts, it was absorbed by R M and set up in Torrens Street, Islington, under the name of British Music Smiths  to manufacture solely for the company.  In 1928 a disastrous fire gutted the premises: Cutts went his separate way, and William Henry Furzer came to join the Rose, Morris staff.  Engaged mainly in manufactures, (some of them highly ingenious!) though associated with many other branches of the firm's activities, he retired at the end of 1969.

Other notable engagements at this time were Frederick A Williams and Leonard Wellings (both still with the company, in charge of Trade Counter and loading area respectively,) Henry Charles Tagney, John Banham, Robert Newham (all three unhappily, deceased), and, a little later, Edward Albert ('Ted') Williams (brother of Harry) and Alfred Nathan – the former now in charge of Home Sales and the latter Company Secretary.  Also happily with RM is Harry Bargeman, another 'old stager' – one of three brothers, all in the company's employ.  Marjorie Rose, another sister of the Rose brothers, joined the office staff in the early nineteen-twenties, remaining with the firm until her retirement after the War.

By 1929 larger premises were needed, and they were found at 58 City Road, EC1 where the company obtained the lease of a good warehouse with an imposing shopfront, a huge basement for storage ample space for offices and showroom and - marvel of marvels – a hydraulic lift serving a loading bank capable of accepting a (horse-drawn) railway van.  Here, at last, was room for organisation and expansion.

The pattern of the music trade in those days was one of steady sale of the 'bread and butter' lines growing slowly as scope and specifications improved with superimposed 'booms' of popular items – some spectacular and long-lasting.  There was, at this

A blow-accordion.  (The 'bellows' were dummy).  This is the forerunner of today's streamlined mouth-blown instruments.

A melodeon of 1930 – an instrument hardly changed to this day.


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Expanding Markets

A Zither-Banjo (John Grey model 162) – one of an extensive range of John Grey Banjos.

There was, at the turn of the century, a well established musical instrument house called
Barnett, Samuel & Sons, and from this root had sprung the Decca Gramophone Company, amongst others.  An offshoot of this organisation was the company of John Grey & Sons (London) Limited, established in Westminster in 1832, renowned for its fine banjos and by 1932 trading in the full range of musical merchandise in Worship Street, not far from the premises of Rose, Morris & Co. Ltd.  After delicate negotiation, the John Grey stock and business were acquired by R.M.  From this acquisition there fell to Rose, Morris a number of advantages, some unsuspected.

First, of course, there was the useful stock of merchandise and the goodwill.  Then, as a direct result, came the wholesale agency for Decca records (including Panachord, Brunswick and Polydor) which raised the status of the record department considerably.  This came in time to enjoy the freak sales achieved by some of the more popular titles - including 'Eleven more months and Ten more days', 'Marta' (by the Street Singer), Frank Titterton's 'Trees', Jack Hylton's  'Rhymes', and numerous other best-sellers.

With John Grey came its factory, consisting of the Beddards, father and son, one polisher and a lad.  They were to provide the nucleus of the company's future manufacturing organisation - and it is noteworthy that the R.M. factory is managed to this day by the son, Francis Robert Beddard.  Throughout its early history the factory was always the special responsibility of Stanley Rose, who adopted it as his 'baby' and guided its many ventures until his retirement.  There came also one Albert J. Wilks, who had joined B.S. & S. in 1918 and was managing the Worship Street warehouse at the time of its acquisition.  Albert Wilks, with no niche awaiting him in the R.M. organisation, looked towards sales abroad, and

set about the task of organising exports.  When he retired in 1968, after exactly 50 years in the Trade, he left behind him a flourishing export department, with friends and associates all over the world.  There came also from John Grey (after a time with Francis, Day & Hunter Limited) Joseph E Platt one of the notables of the Trade who ran the company's Trade Counter until the time of his retirement at the end of 1963.  Unhappily he died soon after retiring.

Thus the end of 1932 came with the seeds safely sown of Rose, Morris's future huge manufacturing and exporting activities.