The Penn's of Chiswick Products 3

Cherry Blossom Shoe Polish

Dan & Charles Mason, pioneers of the shoe polish industry in Chiswick

The Penn's of Chiswick Products 3

THE PENN'S OF CHISWICK PRODUCTS Ltd Page 3 of 5

Charles James Penn, the fourth and youngest son of Harry and Martha Penn was born on 12th July 1901. As Charlie (as he was known by his family) was too young to join his father and two brothers in the army in France, he obtained a job with the Chiswick Polish Company working in the tin shop part of the factory where the tins to contain the polish were made. However, he joined the army as soon as he was old enough and after two years service, returned to the Chiswick Polish Company to work in the Cardboard Box Department. Here he worked with his brother Mark, and also met his future wife Mildred (Millie) Baker. Charlie and Millie were married on 23rd December 1923, at St. Nicholas Church in Church Street, Chiswick, just around the corner from Chiswick Square where Mark and Vera Penn were then living with their three year old daughter Florence (Penny). Penny acted as bridesmaid at the wedding and Millie's younger brother Reg (also aged three) was the page boy. The reception was held at Mark and Vera's home in Chiswick Square. Charlie and Millie had two daughters Joyce and Patricia. Like his brother Mark, Charlie was a very keen sportsman and took part in various sports such as cricket, soccer, football, hockey and lawn bowls. Many of these were played with the Chiswick Products (formerly known as the Chiswick Polish Company) sports teams on their sports ground on the banks of the River Thames next to the company's Chertsey Road factory.

The grounds were also close to the company's housing estate, Staveley Gardens where Charlie, Millie, and their family lived. Charlie also enjoyed playing a number of indoor games such as darts and billiards, etc., with the company teams that all came under the name of the Masonian Sports Club.

Despite Charlie's great interest and involvement in sports of various kinds, his main hobby and service to the community was with the St. John Ambulance Brigade. He commenced his service with the Brigade in 1932 and retired from it in 1964 after receiving a medal in 1963 to commemorate his 31 years service with the brigade.

Charlie Penn retired from Chiswick Products Ltd on 12th July 1966 and died on 28th February 1969. His widow Millie continued to live at Staveley Gardens for some years and eventually passed away on 5th July 1986. At the time of her death she was the proud grandmother of four grandchildren (Roger and Stephen Lewington and Janice and Judith Hughes) and seven great grandchildren.

Ronald Mark Penn, son of Mark and Vera Penn, was born at 4 Chiswick Square, Chiswick, on 4th April 1927. The only other child in the family Florence Vera May, (later known as Penny), was 7 years old at the time of his birth. Ron attended Hogarth

Lane Infants and Primary Schools until the family moved to their new home in Twickenham, Middlesex, in 1935. Ron then attended Heathfield Primary School from which he gained a scholarship to Thames Valley County School, later known as Thames Valley Grammar School. After two or three years of school at Thames Valley, some of which was severely interrupted by the war conditions of the time, Ron gained entry to the Twickenham Technical College Junior School. His original intention was to study to become a toolmaker, but he soon found that he had a greater interest in laboratory work. During this time Ron joined the Middlesex Regiment Army Cadet unit based at the school and also became a member of a local Air Scout Group. After finishing his studies at Twickenham Technical College, he obtained a position as a Laboratory Assistant at Chiswick Products Ltd., the company where his father had worked in the Cardboard Box Department since 1914.

In 1938, Ron had enlisted as an Air Raid Messenger during the war scare of that period, and on the outbreak of the war in September 1939, continued in that position until he transferred to the Auxiliary Fire Service at Chiswick Products in 1943. He had the distinction of being the youngest fully trained Air Raid Messenger in the Country of Middlesex and was awarded the Defence Medal in recognition of his service in the ARP and AFS.

The following description of Ron's employment at Chiswick Products is taken from his family history entitled "PENNing a History".

"At the end of my two years of study at the Twickenham Technical College Junior School, my aspirations took another turn when I found that the various scientific subjects that I had studied at this school had caused me to give up my ideas of being a toolmaker or draughtsman and to want to pursue a scientific career instead. I therefore applied for and was given a position in the laboratory at Chiswick Products Ltd., located at their Burlington Lane factory near my Chiswick Square birthplace and the house "Hawthorns" where I had lived as a small child. My main work as a laboratory assistant involved testing samples of polishes taken from the production line and checking the raw materials from which the polishes were made to make sure that they were up to the required standard. I also made up small test batches of new formula polishes, made necessary because of the ever changing availability (or non-availability) of the various waxes, solvents and dyes used in the manufacture of the polishes. I very clearly remember the first job that was given to me on my first day at work. I was given a large iron mortar and told to break up some very hard Carnauba wax with a large iron pestle. I feel sure that this job was given to me as a test of my strength and perseverance. Also, as I found out later, it was a job that nobody liked doing. My starting salary as a junior laboratory assistant was thirteen shillings and sixpence a week approximately one dollar and thirty cents in Australian currency.

One of the best parts of my job in the laboratory was the opportunity it gave me to visit almost every part of the large Burlington Lane factory, which was almost completely self-supporting in the packaging and marketing of the company's products, as well as making a wide range of shoe, furniture and floor polishes. The company's other factory at Chertsey Road not only contained the cardboard box department where my father worked, but also contained the section where large sheets of tinplate were printed with the designs that were to be on the lids and bodies of the polish tins. After passing through big stoving ovens, the printed sheets were transported to the Burlington Lane factory, where they were put through large presses that stamped out and formed up the lids and bodies of the tins. Three floors above the tinshop was the polish mixing department where large quantities of relevant waxes, solvents and dyes were heated to quite critical temperatures in huge steam-heated mixing vats. When the contents of each vat was considered to be ready for filling into tins, it was released in batches through steam-jacketed pipes into smaller vats which formed part of the filling machines on the floor below. While the actually filling of the tins was mechanically controlled, the feeding of the empty tins into the filling machine was done by hand, as was the foiling and lidding of the tins of polish after they had passed through a cooling area that solidified the contents. The tins of polish were then packed by hand into cardboard boxes and cartons that had been printed and produced at the Chertsey Road factory under the supervision of my father.

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