Tag Archives: 1955

1955 Bryans Aeroquipment Ltd Board Appointments

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From Flight magazine, 10th June 1955, page 818

Bryans Aeroquipment Board Appointments

THREE executives of Bryans Aeroquipment, Ltd., have been appointed to the Board. They are Messrs. Jack Austin, as design director, Victor Lawton, sales director, and H. D. Strawson, O.B.E., production director. All three previously held the posts of “special directors” of their respective departments.

Mr. Austin has been with the company since its early days, controlling the design and drawing-office sides of the business. Except for a short break during the war, when he was with M.A.P., Mr. Lawton has served successively as sales manager, general manager, and sales director since he joined the company in 1939. Mr. Strawson took over the production side of the business when he joined in 1952, following employment with Imperial Airways and B.O.A.C., in the latter case as chief engineer (operations).

Other directors of the firm are:

Mr. C. E. Stearns (chairman),
Mr. J. R. Bryans (managing),
Mr. M. C Bryans, and
Maj. P. W. S. Bulman, C.B.E., M.C., A.F.C., F.R.Ae.S.

Bryans Aeroquipment, Ltd., market test equipment covering the fields of gyroscopes, manometry, electrical temperature measurement (including jet-pipe thermocouples), oxygen breathing, cabin pressurization, sound recording, and artificial breathing and reaction testing for pilots. They have agents in over thirty countries throughout the world.

The company was based in Willow Lane, Mitcham.

Home Radio

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Shop that was established at 187 London Road (opposite Eagle House), in 1946 by brothers Alan and Colin Sproxton, using their service gratuities. The name “Home Radio” was suggested by their father.

September 1947 – the shop at 187 London Road, and their van. From the in house magazine of Murphy Radio Co., the Murphy News.

In 1955 Colin Sproxton took part in the Monte Carlo Rally.

Colin Sproxton in 1959 at the Monte Carlo Rally. Clip from Merton Memories photo reference Mit_​People_​124-1, copyright London Borough of Merton.

Home Radio initially sold electrical appliances, as shown in these adverts from 1960.

The business grew with selling components by mail order. According to an article in The Radio Constructor magazine (pdf), Home Radio and Mitcham became known all over the world.

Colin Sproxton retired in 1964, the year of this catalogue cover:

1964 Home Radio catalogue

The back cover of this catalogue showed how to get to their shop by public transport. The map also showed their service shop in Locks Lane.

Their 1968 components catalogue, was advertised in Practical Wireless magazine, and said that it was:

Used and acclaimed by scientists, engineers, technicians, teachers & students

1968 Practical Wireless magazine ad

In 1969 they moved to larger premises to cope with the need to store large amounts of components for the mail order business. They went to the top floor of a new office block at 234 – 240 London Road, which gave them 2,400 square feet of space. The business was being run by Alan Sproxton and Ernest Layton at this time.

The Radio Constructor magazine described the dinner that was held at The Grange on 23rd April 1969 to celebrate the expansion of the business. A guest at the dinner was an old friend of the Sproxton family, Mr B. Mund Hopen from Bergen in Norway, who was in charge of the Norwegian Shipping Mission during World War 2. Mr Sproxton, in his after-lunch speech said that it was his opinion that three things saved Britain from defeat: radar, the tenacity and courage of the RAF, and the Norwegian tanker fleet which came over to Britain.

The company was wound up in 1982, as recorded in the London Gazette:

HOME RADIO (COMPONENTS) LIMITED

“That it has been proved to the satisfaction of the Company that this Company cannot, by reason of its liabilities, continue its business and that it is advisable that the same should be wound up; and that the Company be wound up and that Keith John Chapman of 1-2 Pudding Lane, London EC3R 8AB, be and is hereby appointed as Liquidator of the Company for the purpose of such voluntary winding-up.”

A. Sproxton, Chairman