The last years of Compton organs

[MusingMuso]

I have, over the past decade or so, collected a vast amount of information about the Compton company and those associated with it, with a view to piecing together the history and innovations introduced by the firm.

This includes many interesting names who worked for or with Compton, but who were active in other fields of expertise. The name of Mr A H MIdgeley is especially interesting, for not only was he connected with Compton, he was also a director of CAV, (later to become CAV Lucas, but initially standing for C A Vandervell based in Acton Vale, London). They were important in the development of motor-vehicle electrical equipment. Midgley was later to be involved in war-work, and one patent in which he is cited as the inventor, includes a fuse for the infamous "Earthquake bomb".

I know very little about Leslie Bourn, yet he was absolutely at the heart of everything electronic within the Compton company; holding the position of Technical Director for many years. It seems that he was also a friend of Arthur Lord, the ex-theatre organist who eventually founded Wyvern Organs, but not before he was associated with Compton as General Manager.

Was Kenneth Burg ever involved with the Compton company? It seems that he was well known to Arthur Lord, who snapped him up when founding Wyvern Organs.

So throwing this open, what can anyone tell me about the electronic side of the business and the people involved which isn't already known.

The final years of the company are a bit of a mystery to me at the moment, but clearly, they were on the slide soon after 1960; getting involved with theatre lighting consoles and even a fold-up caravan project. The pipe organ division was the first thing to fold of course, being sold to Rushworth & Dreaper in 1964. The Makin company, under the enthusiastic wing of Mr Pilling and the parent Bibby Group plc, snapped up the Compton electronic side in, I believe, 1970.

Any information would be very welcome indeed.

Best,

MM

[glowinganode]

Was Kenneth Burg ever involved with the Compton company? It seems that he was well known to Arthur Lord, who snapped him up when founding Wyvern Organs.

Hi MM,
http://www.arthurlord.co.uk/about/
may be of interest, and a potential lead.
I found them very helpful and enthusiastic when I dealt with them (although that was about 25 years ago).
Cheers,
Rob.

[Lucien Nunes]

Hi there MM and welcome.

Lots to get to grips with! I'll try and tackle some of the easier points to the best of my knowledge first, then have a cut-and-paste session with some info from my notes. I'm afraid most of the information I have is rather nebulous and disjointed and subject to errors. Steve Dutfield would be a good source for company data although his main focus is on the cinema organ years. First, my favourite things of all time, that I do know a bit about...

The Strand / Compton theatre lighting consoles
These were actually from much earlier and were on the wane by the era you're considering. The association began before the war, when Fred Bentham of Strand Electric devised a new method for controlling lights using an organ console allied with an existing design of mechanised dimmer already patented within Strand. Bentham never learned to play the organ, although I think he had wished very much to do so, instead satisfying his desire for giving live artistic performances with the playing of 'colour-music'. The first commercial sale of a Compton-built 'Light Console' and its associated Strand electromagnetic clutch dimmerbank was in 1940 to the Portuguese National Opera House. At Electrokinetica we have a later 'System CD' console of 1957 built by Compton, which you will have a chance to operate at EK once it is restored. I have collated some technical info from various sources on these Strand / Compton setups if you are interested. I don't think there was any connection with the Bourn / Midgley patent for an illumination control system that responds to the organist's performance on an ordinary Compton organ.

Arthur Lord's arrival and departure
I suspect Arthur Lord (AL) joined Compton between 1958 and 1961, this was the period after the death of Jimmy Taylor and of course JHC a year earlier, SD would be able to confirm his arrival date. I don't think Kenneth Burge was ever at Compton. The Wyvern organs website claims: 'In 1966 Kenneth Burge founded Wyvern Organs and two years later he invited his old friend Arthur Lord to join him as artistic advisor'. This tallies with the last references I have to AL in the Specs File.

The spec sheet of the 3m for St. Mary's Charlton Kings AB.2948, has the customary handwritten annotation of Job No., Order No. and installer stating 'Installed 20/3/68 Wally Fair and Arthur Lord'.

By the time we reach AB.2960, the big 4m for St. Michaels Exeter (installed 4/68), the works notes dated 25/3/68 come not from AL as usual but from R. Willis, on stationery with 'The John Compton Organ Co.' crossed out and 'Compton Organs Ltd.' typed in.

AB.3065 refers to a 2m for S.W.J. Miller, probably around mid 1968 (By November we have reached AB.3201), for which the spec (in a non-standard style) has a rubber stamp from 'Arthur Lord Organ Studios' Strangely, an unnumbered spec for a 4m, also for S.W.J. Miller, undated but in ordinary Compton style and typed on the same typewriter they were using around this time, bears a note 'despatched to [illegible] A. Lord for finishing'. Thus we see AL involved but from a distance, as a dealer rather than as a member of the firm.

More to come...

L

[Lucien Nunes]

People involved in Electrones in the later years
During his tenure, AL often gave the works notes attached to specs in a standard format. The circulation list on these probably indicates everybody who needed to know about the manufacture of a large Electrone taking place. Typical lists are as follows:

1/10/63: From AL to Mr. Meredith, cc. Mr. Watts, Mr. Davies, Mr. Huggett, Mr. Hawes, Mr. Wheeler, Test Room. Passed to Mr. Bourn for information.

27/5/64: As above but 'Drawing Office' in place of Mr. Davies

Undated but also 1963-64: To Mr. Meredith, cc. Mr. Watts, Mr. Pollard, Mr. Davies, Mr. Huggett, Mr. Hawes, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Moore. Passed to Mr. Bourn for information.

16/5/66: To Mr. J.B. Meredith cc Mr. Huggett, Mr. Hawes, D.O., Test Dept. Passed to Mr. Francis and Mr. Bourn for information

Sometimes a reference is given as AL/AH, in which AH appears to be A Hixon, who on at least one occasion wrote the notes pp. A. Lord. Unfortunately R. Willis only addresses his notes 'To whom it may concern'. By May 1970, they are written by DVW/MR.

It is a little disappointing that I know next to nothing about most of these people, just a few anecdotal snippets. E.g. Mr. Pollard, IIRC, was responsible for main cables amongst other things. Mr. Moore might have been responsible for installation or at least despatch. A few more names turn up immortalised in the instruments they built just like the builders of pipe organs. They don't mean much to me either but there are a few with recognisable connections outside Electrones, e.g. their names appear in cinema relays (even W. Fair appears in a few relays I look after). Fred Allen appears in a few Electrones at the build stage, quite apart from his labels and notes from the COMCo years. I have written about Fred elsewhere; he maintained many of the surviving Electrones after Compton folded but his original role within the firm I am not sure about. Another person I would like to know more about, who had some interest in the Electrone Dept., was Derek Batten. I have tried to trace him but without success. Also yet to discover are the degrees to which LB and WF took an active role in the later stages of the Electrone's history.

More to come...

[Lucien Nunes]

The last Electrones
The last Special I have a definitive record of that seems to have come from Acton, Barony Church Kirriemuir AB.3538, has a note 'Despatched 4/8/70' Of course there might have been more, or maybe it was stock designs only after that. I am about to get hold of a very late stock model Electrone, possibly bought in 1971. I will see what its job number is and whether we can date it from its components.

The various companies involved in the final years
Compton Electrones were originally badged 'The John Compton Organ Co. Ltd.'

At an unknown date but before 1958, a company called 'Compton Electrones Ltd.' was incorporated No. 00575568. Electrone literature from this era still bears the name 'John Compton Organ Co. Ltd.' although 'Compton Electrones Ltd' sometimes appears on the serial No. plates where fitted. Later on, 'The Compton Organ Co.' is used on at least one brochure.

On 11/09/63, 'Hirel Electronic Developments Ltd.' was incorporated, No. 00773784, with Col. Francis Royston Peathey-Johns MBE BSc(Eng) C.Eng. MIMechE FIEE MIERE, ex. Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as a director. It is not clear whether there was any connection to Compton at this stage.

On 02/04/64, 'Compton Pipe Organs Ltd.' was incorporated, No. 00799289 at 72 St. Anne St. Liverpool, then the address of Rushworth and Dreaper Ltd.

On 11/07/67, 'Compton Organs Ltd.' was incorporated, No. 00908269 at 3 London Wall Buildings EC2M 5PH. Possibly from the beginning, but certainly by 10/07/68, Col. P-J was a director of Compton Organs Ltd along with H. Hutton, which used the 'Hirel Group' logo on its stationery. The Company sec. was C. Gregory. Electrones now show 'Compton Organs Limited' on the makers' plate.

The last document I have from Compton Organs Ltd. is an invoice dated 06/03/71.

On 22/04/71, 'Compton Makin Ltd.' was incorporated, No. 01008962 at 16 Stratford Place, London W1N 9AF although the first leaflet I have from Compton Makin gives their address as State Mill, Woodbine St. East, Rochdale, Lancs.

On 14/06/71, creditors meetings were called for Epta Engineering Co. Ltd (another company of which Col. P-J was a director) at 2.15 pm, Compton Organs Ltd. at 3pm and Hirel Electronic Developments Ltd. at 4pm. Liquidators were appointed on 6/06/71.

On 23/08/71, 'Compton-Edwards Ltd.' was incorporated, No. 01021894 at Knowle Road, Mirfield, Yorkshire.

Postscript:
Compton Makin built electrostatic organs to updated Compton designs and incorporating their own improvements to the generators. The company was dissolved in 1990 but Makin Organs Ltd., at first called Tiemead Ltd., carried on the business.

Compton-Edwards, I suspect, never made electrostatic organs, although they used a few Compton model names etc. They were dissolved on 12/12/89.
Compton Pipe Organs was dissolved in 2003, Rushworth and Dreaper in 2005, although liquidators had been appointed in 2002.

Enough for now, if anyone has any comments, corrections or more info on any of the people I've mentioned, it would be very interesting to hear.

Lucien

[highlandelectrone]

Lucien

Just a quick thought - Graham Lord is still a director of Wyvern organs - he has been selling a few instruments on Ebay recently - perhaps he might have some information he would be willing to share.

Richard

[MusingMuso]

Thank you to Lucien and Richard for taking so much trouble to post the information I was looking for, because other than trawling through Companies House and insolvency records, this sort of information is very difficult to come by; especially since it involved so many companies which rose and fell quite quickly. Comparing notes as it were, the last reference I can find to a pipe organ post 1960, is one re-built around 1962, which means that whatever name applied to Compton after this date, was largely confined to the electronic market and the manufacture of a folding caravan! That stated, I'm fairly sure that the tuning and maintenance business would carry on as normal until 1964; though it may have been contracted out.

I suspect that many of the original staff saw thew writing on the wall after 1960, and that included Maurice Forsythe-Grant. Now he's another elusive character, and apparently a very intelligent but modest individual, who had connections in the military and at one time was posted to India (I think), in the Signals Corps. (I am struggling for time as I write, but I will edit or update this later). He MUST have been very important in the radar work which Compton did during war-time, and of course, I have evidence to support the liklehood that he was a founder or mentor or something for RACAL Electronics, which became Vodafone in due course, and the first £1 billion company in the UK. The fact that he was an enthusiastic pipe organ builder is confirmed by the fact that he set-up, with two ex-Compton men, the firm of Grant, Deegens and Rippin, who were absolutely on the money in terms of "new" organ-building after the installation of the pipe-organ at the Royal Festival Hall. (It's very interesting how the two electronic "specials" installed there and at the Free Trade Hall, claimed to be "baroque" in character, even though they couldn't have been anything of the sort!)

I still haven't discovered any connection between Compton's radar work and Sir Bernard Lovell, a fine organist in his own rights, who MUST have been very aware of Compton's. It would be lovely to find one, but somehow, it doesn't look likely.

I have discovered a conncetion directly with Robert Watson-Watt (Radar supremo), Compton's and RAF Farnborough, which suggests that Compton were probably involved with onboard radar equipment in some way, but as yet, there have been no definitive leads in this direction to speak of, other than a certain Group Capt. G H Foss, who was the go between and who had a talented son who was a fine organist!

Apart from the radar work, the one remaining mystery is Leslie Bourn himself, who apart from being born in Twickenham in 1899, remains a complete mystery to me. There is some suggestion that the first electro-mechnical tone generation originated in Canada, and it is interesting that at least one of the Bourn patents was registered in that country. It's snippets like this which make the whole thing so intriguing and so elusive, even overlooking some of the electronic-music experiments being carried out in France and Russia. (There is at least one Compton patent registered in France!)

I feel that after almost a decade of steady work, (and recently more intensive work), the end is in sight, and even if all the details are not forthcoming due to the passage of time, there is the basis for a fascinating account of the Compton company, which stands uniquely in a category quite removed from any other.

Best,

MM (Colin Mitchell)

[Lucien Nunes]

John Makin Pilling's own Electrone

What was the first connection between JRMP and Compton? Why did he want to rescue the remnants of Compton when the Hirel setup went bust? I'm not aware of him being in the organ-maufacturing field before that time, although he was evidently a good businessman who spotted an opportunity to move the bespoke electronic organ market forward. Maybe the connection began in 1965...

According to the notes, AB.2521 was a 4-manual drawstop job in straight-grained medium walnut installed November 1965, for J.R.M. Pilling Esq. of Windermere. Console 'to be in two sections to go through doors' and 'felted underside' so presumably destined to live on a polished floor in a home environment. It has a standard Electronesque romantic spec of some 75 speaking stops, 'as agreed with Mr. Lord 28/7/65', with a few substitutions such as an Unda Maris and Nason 4 for the Solo Bassoon and Contra Tuba, Quartane II for the Gt. 12th, and a few stops moved between divisions. Most of the rest is standard, full set of couplers, pistons, all divisions under expression, 3-stage reverb etc. But what stands out is the: '21-rheostat voicing box mounted behind music desk, with on-off switch and switch to Gt. or Ped. harmonic bars.'

So Mr. Pilling had ordered an organ with hidden tweakability, using a box possibly like the one Richard Cunningham has with the Manchester generators. This suggests he was already interested not only in playing his Electrone, but also experimenting with voicings on a serious level. No indication is given of the type of generators used although the mixturework suggests type 365, which would then have been quite a new design. Had it been twin-generator, there would perhaps have been merit in being able to switch the box to the Swell also, hence I think it was a single generator type. It was clearly good enough that nearly five years later he had the confidence to buy the business that made it.

Lucien

[highlandelectrone]

Hi Lucien

I hope you are having a good Christmas.

Firstly, apologies for preaching to the converted - but this info might be new to some people.

As far as I am aware, John Pilling was a very keen organist, and bought the remnants of Comptons more as a hobby than anything else.

The early instruments were built as one-off specials, and used consoles supplied by George Sixsmith. As we have discussed previously, the developed the multi-generator system in a way Compton never did. The ex Free trade Hall Compton runs two generator sets, one driven at double speed. The low speed generator only provides the Great and main peda;l divisions, the high speed on provides the Swell, Choir and secondary Pedal.

However, the Makin 3 manual which I have has 3 sets of generators (I have been reliably informed that some of the big jobs had 5 sets). A 5 inch set (similar to the late type Compton single side 5 inch ones) and two 2.5 inch sets (also similar to the Compton single side ones but I think with 8 octaves of sines) I say I think because it is in storage at the moment and cant check it!
The crucial difference is that the 2.5 sets provide unlocked harmonics (5ths and 7ths) thus moving the tonal synthesis forward in a massive leap.

To Musing Muso - nice to meet you, I follow your posts with interest on various forums, the ex FTH instrument, and its sisters in RFH and Rowton Castle had more of an "International" spec than a Baroque one, although there are plentiful mutations and mixtures (slightly out of tune!) See http://cdmnet.org/Julian/schemes/elec/rfh.htm

Anyway, back to the wine and leftover turkey!

Looking forward to more discussion.

Regards to all

Richard

[MusingMuso]

[quote="highlandelectrone"]


As far as I am aware, John Pilling was a very keen organist, and bought the remnants of Comptons more as a hobby than anything else.

The early instruments were built as one-off specials, and used consoles supplied by George Sixsmith. As we have discussed previously, the developed the multi-generator system in a way Compton never did. The ex Free trade Hall Compton runs two generator sets, one driven at double speed. The low speed generator only provides the Great and main pedal divisions, the high speed on provides the Swell, Choir and secondary Pedal.

However, the Makin 3 manual which I have has 3 sets of generators (I have been reliably informed that some of the big jobs had 5 sets). A 5 inch set (similar to the late type Compton single side 5 inch ones) and two 2.5 inch sets (also similar to the Compton single side ones but I think with 8 octaves of sines) I say I think because it is in storage at the moment and cant check it!
The crucial difference is that the 2.5 sets provide unlocked harmonics (5ths and 7ths) thus moving the tonal synthesis forward in a massive leap.

To Musing Muso - nice to meet you, I follow your posts with interest on various forums, the ex FTH instrument, and its sisters in RFH and Rowton Castle had more of an "International" spec than a Baroque one, although there are plentiful mutations and mixtures (slightly out of tune!) See http://cdmnet.org/Julian/schemes/elec/rfh.htm

quote]


=================================



As I always take an extended break at this time of year, I am particularly pleased that the on-going Compton research has taken quite a forward leap during the past three weeks.

I don't know how relevant this is, but John Pilling, apart from being an organ enthusiast, was a director of J Bibby plc, and in the Dunn & Bradstreet register dating from circa. 1980, Compton-Makin were actually a listed subsidiary of that parent company. Apparently, Mr Pilling had electronic organs assembled in the corner of a paper-mill or paper-store, I'm not sure which.

However, the electrones installed at the Festival Hall and the Free Trade Hall, surely fall well within the period of the John Compton Organ Co., if they dated from circa 1952? It therefore follows that these were "specials" built to a much higher spec, and with a degree of sophistication not seen previously. I'm fairly certain that Leslie Bourn was around at the time, and probably stayed with Compton to the bitter end, because he was certainly there around 1959/60, as Technical Director, when he would be about 60 or 61 years of age.

Now I wonder if anyone could confirm the fact that as time (and money) was running out for the Compton concern, there was some simplification of the electrostatic tone generators. I first heard of this from a certain Dr Graham Dukes in Norway, who suggested that the number of harmonics had decreased in the later organs.

Does anyone know if this the case?

Following the departure of many of the pipe-organ building staff around 1960, and the departure of Arthur Lord to his new company, Wyvern Organs, I begin to wonder if cost-cutting wasn't a desperate attempt to keep Compton's afloat. As we know, the pipe-organ side of the business was sold off to Rushworth & Dreaper of Liverpool in 1964, leaving only the electronic organ business,a new type of space-heater and a folding caravan as the main activities of the company.

As you all pick the bones of the turkey remnants, I would welcome a broad comment as to how the best electrones compare with later transistor organs, because a Pilling special has recently been obtained by a school in Halifax, which once graced Lancaster Priory. Some reports suggest that although the flutes were quite pleasant, the chorus effect and Mixtures in particular, were described as sounding "plastic". I have only ever played one proper Electrone, which was getting on in years at the time, (probably around 1975), and although there was a bit of hum and the occasional "plop" and crackle, I found it to be quite a nice instrument overall, and far better than a dreadful Livinsgton-Burg of the same era, and infinitely better than a newer transistorised organ; the name of which escapes me.

Interestingly, the next two organs to impress me as representing the next steps forward, were a 1970's stock-model Allen, and the FM synthesis prototype at Bradford University; the latter forming the basis for Wyvern Organs for many years, before they too went the way of digital sampling.

Food for thought....but finish the turkey first!

Incidentally, I've discovered that John Compton himself was the product of his father's third marriage, to a lady called Mary Hayward, and they ran a grocery and drapery business in Newton Burgoland. This explains how John Hayward Compton could go to one of the best schools in the country, King Edward VI, Birmningham. On the other hand, with seven members of the same family under one roof, plus a servant, he may have been happy to run away!

Best,

MMI