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A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Perth Printing Industry
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Dundee
George
Langlands Harley was born at Colesberg Kopye near Kimberley, South
Africa, on 27 January 1867. He moved to Lochee with his widowed
mother after his father died from sunstroke, and at the age of eleven
he applied for a job with William Kidd and was indented on a five
years’ apprenticeship to the stationery trade. Among his recollections
was his opening of the soaked let-ters washed ashore at the ‘Ferry’
in the mailbags from the wrecked train after the Tay Bridge disaster
in 1879.
When the founders of Burns & Harris left William Kidd’s
employment to set up their own business, Harley joined them and
served that company for 21 years. In 1904 he was able to raise £1000
to start business on his own account. He opened a small shop at
102 Nethergate and at the same time he acquired a double flat at
Gowan’s Court, 21 North Tay Street, where he installed his
initial printing plant: an Arab platen, a double crown flat bed
cylinder press, several type cases, a proofing press and a guillotine.
Downstairs from this letterpress jobbing office was the works of
Robert Blackwood, himself a lithographer recently in business. The
close proximity of the two young firms led to many years of co-operative
neighbourliness.
The strain of setting up and running his own busi-ness began to
affect Harley’s health and this led to his decision to offer
a partnership to William Cox. In 1907 the business became known
as Harley & Cox. As it prospered it was necessary to move to
new premises at East Henderson’s Wynd. At the same time, the
opportunity was taken to set up a litho department. The company
remained there until 1921 when the owners of the property put it
up for sale. It was decided that rather than purchase the building
the company should seek a new and larger location and this took
them back to Gowan’s Court, opposite their original building.
Soon afterwards they installed their second Intertype machine costing
£1300. In 1924 William Cox died but the senior partner, George
Harley, served the company until 1944 when he died in a tragic drowning
accident.
In 1908 the Cresswell Printing Press was founded by T. M. Sparks
in premises at 2 and 4 Peter Street. He had been trained as a bookbinder
but decided to add printing to his business and in 1911 moved to
larger accommodation at 12 and 14 Peter Street. The press continued
to do business there for the remaining years of its seventeen years
of existence. The choice of the company title is interesting. The
press was established in the heart of old Dundee, in a very old
thoroughfare running between Murraygate and Seagate, and close to
the site of the old Town House and Market Cross. Nearby there was
formerly another landmark of bygone Dundee, the Dog Well. The Cross
and the Well were combined to obtain the Cresswell Press.
The growth of the printing industry in the city during the second
half of the last century can best be measured by consulting the
Dundee Directory. In the 1856—57 edition 11 printers are listed
and this number had risen to 13 in 1874. However, by the end of
the century the number of printers had risen to 25. Of these perhaps
the greatest success story is that of D. C. Thomson.
When William Thomson, a Dundee shipowner in the 1870s, took over
shares in a local firm which published the Dundee Courier and Argus
and the Weekly News, he could not have foreseen the success which
was to follow from that modest beginning. In 1886 he took complete
control of the company and made his son D. C. Thomson a partner
with full authority over the firm, then named W. & D. C. Thomson.
Some time later another son, Frederick, joined the firm.
In the years that followed, several nephews of D. C. Thomson entered
the firm, including another notable figure in the company’s
history, W. Harold Thomson, whose sons are chairman and vice-chairman
today (1995).
From the time W. & D. C. Thomson was estab-lished until the
turn of the century, there was fierce competition in Dundee with
the larger and longer established firm of John Leng & Co. That
company published the Dundee Advertiser and the Dundee Evening Telegraph
as well as the People’s Journal and People’s Friend.
During the latter part of the nineteenth century the Thomson business
became the more success-ful of the two. In 1905 the name of the
company was changed to the present D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
A year later an arrangement was made with the Lengs to pool the
two businesses with Thomsons as the majority partner. For a period
the Lengs continued to manage their side of the business, but eventually
both came under the full management of the Thomson family.
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Volume 3 published 1996
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