H. H. Martyn & Co.

When Herbert Henry Martyn (1842–1937) left his employer in 1874 and set up in business with a stonemason colleague, he could little have imagined that during his lifetime it would grow to employ more than a thousand people. Indeed, the reason he decided to leave was that he resented the injustice of his employer in ascribing some of his work to others.^[1] He grew up in poverty, but by that time, he was a skilled craftsman specialising in wood and stone carving with a rich experience of working in churches and carving memorials and gravestones. In 1888 the company was established as an association of art craftsmen. Together with his business partner Alfred Jeffrey Ems he worked on several churches. ^[2] In 1900 he established a limited company. At this time, at the age of 30, his son Alfred Willie Martyn (A. W.) was made managing director.^[3] A. W.'s goal was to provide a complete service for architects. By then it had diversified into decorative plaster work, joinery, cabinet making, wrought iron work and casting in bronze and gun metal.^[4]

Starting in 1909 with the SS Orvieto and her sister ship SS Otranto, the company took on interior fitting and furnishing work for passenger ships,^[5] including the RMS Lusitania and the SS Empress of Asia.

After the outbreak of the First World War, A. W. investigated the possibility of involving the company in the production of wooden airframes, and soon they were active in making fuselages and wings for a variety of aircraft. Much of the work was carried out by women. In 1917 the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company (later known as Gloster Aircraft) was established.^[6]

The period immediately after the war proved difficult for the company, but they were fortunate to obtain a contract for the extension of the Lalbagh Palace in India.^[7][8] In the years following the war, commemoration proved to be culturally important, and the company was involved in the creation of many war memorials, including the Cenotaph in Whitehall.^[9]  

A. W. resigned from the board of both H. H. Martyn and Gloster Aircraft in 1927 after "acute differences of opinion with several of the board members",^[10] and in 1934 the business was sold to Maples of London.

Despite the lack of family involvement, many aspects of the business continued to flourish in the following years, although the depression in the 1930s took its toll.^[11] Among many other liners, both the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth contained furniture and fittings from Martyns.^[12] Numerous decorative contracts ranged from royal commissions to public buildings, universities, cathedrals, offices, country houses and banks, hotels, cinemas, shops and theatres.^[13]  During the 1930s the Corinthian capitals above the entrance to the Geological Museum, now part of the Science Museum, were carved by Martyns,^[14] and they also built the bronze main entrance and the aluminium bronze screens to the reading room for Cambridge University Library.^[15] As part of the reconstruction of the Bank of England the bronze figure of Ariel on the dome by Charles Wheeler was cast by Martyns.^[16]

Although the Martyns Sunningend factory in Cheltenham was no longer suitable for constructing aircraft in the Second World War, it was involved in the construction of Horsa gliders.^[17]

After the war, the task of commemoration of the fallen largely consisted of adding panels to existing memorials, but in the case of the Commandos this was not possible, because they were only established in June 1940. The memorial to them was created by Scott Sutherland, cast by Martyns,^[18] and unveiled by the Queen Mother in 1952. Other notable statues cast by Martyns include the statue of Churchill in the Guildhall by Oscar Nemon^[19] and the equestrian statue of Robert the Bruce by Pilkington Jackson which was unveiled by the Queen in 1964. The House of Commons of the United Kingdom was destroyed by German bombing during the war. Martyns created the new Speaker's Chair, the Dispatch Boxes, and the table on which the boxes sit.^[20] The pulpit and sounding board in St. Paul's Cathedral were carved and built by Martyns, and used for the first time on the occasion of the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.^[21] Two life-size racehorses by John Skeaping were cast by Martyns,^[22] Hyperion in 1962 and Chamossaire in 1966. The statue of Hyperion is now located in the grounds of the National Horse Racing Museum, while that of Chamossaire is in Snailwell.

In the years after the war, shipping companies worked to make good the losses of passenger liners they had incurred. There was also the need to refit liners, such as the Queen Mary, which had been taken over for war service. One particularly notable new ship was the RMS Caronia, for which all the decorative metalwork was provided by Martyns.^[23] Later work included the iconic spiral staircase on the SS Canberra,^[24] and the provision of panelling, ceilings, and fittings on the QE2.^[25]

To meet the needs of their customers, Martyns employed sculptors. Robert Lindsey Clark, who started as an apprentice at Martyns and then studied at Lambeth School of Art. He returned to Martyns before 1901 and became their head of sculpture and art director in about 1905. He exhibited widely and was made a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. Walter Gilbert left the Bromsgrove Guild and joined Martyns in October 1918, continuing his prolific output.

Martyns had a sports field consisting of five tennis courts, two football pitches, a cricket ground and a running track. It also had two pavilions, with a bar, recreation and changing rooms. It was an early facility, covenanted to the workforce. In 1971, at a time of declining demand,^[26] Maples sold Martyns to a company which closed it down, enabling the latter to profit from the sale of the sports field.^[27]  

Although the company office was gutted by bombing in 1940, and there was also a purge of material when the factory closed down,^[28] a significant collection of material about the company is still available in Gloucestershire Archives.^[29]

Ship contracts[edit]

The following table is derived from Chapter 13 of The Best, and is intended to illustrate the scope of the work carried out by Martyns on ocean liners. As the author admits:

Although Martyns ship work contracts were probably its most extensive activity, and incorporated some of its finest work, research has proved to be difficult because of the short life of many of the ships owing to the war, and also because few records survive. In many cases, even where records exist, only the architect, and not the company or the men producing the work is mentioned.

It is also sad that, although at one time there was an extensive library of photographs showing the work the company had done, it would seem that these too, like many of the ships, have disappeared without trace.^[30]

The task of identifying the ships has been further complicated by the fact that ship names were re-used - there were, for example, three ships called the Empress of Britain were built in 1905, 1930 and 1955 respectively. The events of the 20th Century also had an impact on the use of the ships. For example, the Empress of Asia became an armed merchant cruiser in the First World War and a troopship in the Second World War before being sunk by Japanese dive-bombers in 1942.

See also[edit]

• Re Denley's Trust Deed, 1969 English trusts law case, concerning the company sportsground

References[edit]