G&J business practices

[Andrew Wilby]

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There is another anecdote concerning the All-England ringers meeting.

A good few years ago at a RW Board Meeting held at Douglas Hughes house, we=
were planning the big ringers tea for the 75th anniversary of RW to be hel=
d a Southwark. The subject of numbers and the Croydon event came up only fo=
r us all to be taken aback by the explosion which came from Douglas. He was=
suddenly incandescent about that event and G&J. and made his feelings abou=
t "that crook" Johnson very plain

It appears that Cyril Johnston had staged the publicity stunt, handed out t=
he largess in the form of a free tea to something in the order of 3000 ring=
er (can't remember the figure but it was big) and then defaulted on the cat=
ering bill. The caterer went bust over it and according to Doug committed s=
uicide.

Clearly there were very strong emotions about G&J at Whitechapel and not wi=
thout reason. Johnston's business practices were very dodgy to say the leas=
t. There are many sets of G&J handbell around acquired by Tower Captains w=
ho promoted the case for G&J to get the job to their Parishes even if their=
quote was worse than the competition. Yes we would now call it bribery and=
so it was then. There is evidence to suggest they he had local agents in m=
any areas including around Towcester in positions of authority who promoted=
his business without declaring an interest.

Say what you like about his products but as a business it stank and deserve=
d to go under. My Grandfather worked for him on the clock side at one time =
so I don't say that without some family inside knowledge!

I suspect the lack of mention of G&J on the current Bow Tenor is in part a =
reflection of all this.

Andrew
There is an illustration of the New York 18 ton bourdon as the frontpiece=
of 'Bells Thro' the Ages' by JR Nicholls published in 1928. The bell is sh=
own fitted with an arched steel rivetted headstock and two steel wheels han=
ging in it's frame in the foundry. Standing on the frame is Fred (Ted) Coll=
ins who worked for G&J from 1924-1936. The bell was rung at the All-England=
ringers' meeting at Croydon in march 1928 .
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