HOWARTH OF LONDON - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- All Shop Repairs Manufacturing Administration
George Ingram left school to undertake a woodwind instrument making apprenticeship with the Louis Musical Instrument Company, which was considered the best professional woodwind instrument maker of the pre-war period. After his apprenticeship he was taken on full-time as a key maker, becoming one of their most skilled craftsmen.
Harry Baker had a reed making business which supplied the Howarth shop, and three of his young employees, Nigel Clark, John Pullen and Paul Lowdell, formed a consortium to buy the firm. Harry became a fourth member, as his seniority assisted the youngsters in their need for financial backing.
The Company thrived and quickly became in need of more space. So, in 1976, under John Pullen's leadership, manufacturing was moved out of London, first to Partridge Green in West Sussex, then to Worthing, where it remains today. At the same time Harry Baker retired and Paul Lowdell left the firm.
Tom Howarth worked as a saxophone assembler at Emmanuel Lewin where saxophones were manufactured from imported French parts, before joining his father's business, ‘George Howarth', based in York Street Marylebone.
Tom Howarth established an instrument repair shop in Blandford Street & it was there that the three made the tools to manufacture oboes. Their first (serial number 1001) was stamped Howarth & Co., London, as the Howarth name was already well known due to the York Street business. It was purchased in April 1948 by Edward ‘The Duke' Selwyn, principal oboist in the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The Company flourished, quickly establishing a reputation for manufacturing fine quality oboes. In 1952, Tom Howarth resigned after a disagreement with his partners, but the Howarth name was retained due to its high esteem.