Thomas Crapper was an English plumber and who founded Thomas Crapper & Co in London, a sanitary equipment company. Crapper held nine patents, three of them for water closet improvements such as the floating ballcock. He improved the S-bend trap in 1880 inventing the plumbing trap (U-bend). The firm's lavatorial equipment was manufactured at premises in nearby Marlborough Road. The company owned the world's first bath, toilet and sink showroom, in King's Road. Crapper was noted for the quality of his products and received several royal warrants.
Thomas Chippendale was born in Otley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England in June 1718. He became a cabinet-maker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, upon which success he became renowned. The designs are regarded as reflecting the current British fashion for furniture of that period and are today reproduced globally. He was buried 16 November 1779, according to the records of St Martin-in-the-Fields, in the cemetery since built upon by the National Gallery. Chippendale furniture is highly valued; a padouk cabinet that came up for auction in 2008 sold for £2,729,250.
William Blackwood was a Scottish publisher who founded the firm of William Blackwood and Sons.
Thomas Phillips RA was a leading English portrait and subject painter. He painted many of the great men of the day including scientists, artists, writers, poets and explorers.
Earl of Lichfield is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom (1831). The third creation is extant and is held by a member of the Anson family.
David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda, PC was a Welsh industrialist and Liberal politician. He was UK Member of Parliament (MP) for Merthyr Tydfil from 1888 until the January 1910 general election, then MP for Cardiff until the December 1910 general election, when he left politics to concentrate on his business interests. He was made a member of the Privy Council in 1916. He later held office, notably as "Food Controller" in Lloyd George's wartime coalition government.
The Illustrated London News appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in 2003. The company continues today as Illustrated London News Ltd, a publishing, content and digital agency in London, which holds the publication and business archives of the magazine.
Thomas Hodgkin, FBA was a British historian and biographer.
Coutts and Co. is a private bank and wealth manager, founded in 1692. It is the seventh oldest bank in the world. Today, Coutts forms part of RBS Group's wealth management division.
George Palmer was a proprietor of the Huntley & Palmers biscuit manufacturers of Reading in England.
Flockton's were a series of architectural firms in the 19th and early 20th centuries, based in Sheffield, England. The firms were responsible for a number of significant buildings, particularly in the Sheffield area.
George Bell & Sons was a book publishing house located in London, United Kingdom, from 1839 to 1986.
Wall's is a brand of meat products in the United Kingdom, best known for its sausages. Founded in London in 1786 by butcher Richard Wall, it was acquired in 1922 by Lever Brothers, which became a part of Unilever in 1930. Unilever sold off the meat products business and a licence to use the Wall's brand on such within the United Kingdom in 1994 to Kerry Group.
Thomas Cook & Son, originally simply Thomas Cook, was a company founded by Thomas Cook, a cabinet-maker, in 1841 to carry temperance supporters by railway between the cities of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. It was succeeded by Thomas Cook AG after being sold to a German company in 2001, but since 2007 the descendant company is Thomas Cook Group plc.
Sir Thomas Lea, 1st Baronet was an English carpet manufacturer from Kidderminster, and a Liberal Party politician.
Thomas Mudge was an English horologist who invented the lever escapement, the greatest single improvement ever applied to pocket watches.
George Philip (1800–1882) was a cartographer, map publisher and founder of the publishing house George Philip & Son Ltd.
Smith's Bank was a series of English banking partnerships in London and the provinces, all controlled by the Smith family that operated between 1658 and 1918. Although Smith's Bank was never a single entity, the first bank was established in Nottingham by Thomas Smith; often dated to 1658, it is believed to be the first bank to be formed outside London.
Synthomer plc, formerly known as Yule Catto & Co, is a British-based chemicals business. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
William Blackwood and Sons was a Scottish publishing house and printer founded by William Blackwood in 1804. It played a key role in literary history, publishing many important authors, for example John Buchan, George Tomkyns Chesney, Joseph Conrad, George Eliot, E. M. Forster, John Galt, Thomas de Quincey, Charles Reade, Margaret Oliphant, John Hanning Speke and Anthony Trollope, both in books and in the monthly Blackwood’s Magazine.
