A SUN GOLD WATCH FOR SALE

December 2023 – We have been approached by the owner of a gold watch that was presented to a Sun employee – as was the company's custom – in recognition of 40 years’ service, in 1970. If you would be interested in acquiring this item, please let us know and we will put you in touch with the seller. Please e-mail Peter Greenhill at thesunshines@bellnet.ca

 

 

LATEST ADDITIONS to this site

 

As of March 2023:

The Facts and Opinions page has three new articles: ‘The Composing Room’, ‘Working in Letterpress’, and ‘The Background to Lord Southwood's Offer to Purchase Sun Engraving’.

 

As of January 25, 2022:

• The Overview has been given its own Links sidebar for easier navigation, and its content  has been streamlined.
• The Facts and Opinions page has a big new article. ‘Marketing Themselves’ is full of marketing examples – 60-plus black & white and colour photos spanning a century.
• The Picture Gallery has many additions. From now on, new images will be visible with no need to click in order to see them.

 

Reminiscences Page

 

Most-recent entries are by Roy Hodgson and Alan Orchard, located in the 1980s section.

 

People Pages  

 

In 2022 we did a major update to our lists of Sun employees, and would like to thank our two stalwarts, Ernie Mackenzie amd Colin Sillwood, for their continued help in this department. In 2023 we continued to add names and details as they came in.

 

Our lists of Sun employees are probably the most complete ever compiled. Even so, there is much information missing.

To any visitors to this website, whether you worked at the Sun or know people who did:
We would be grateful if you could supply us with further information. We still lack a lot of detail about employees during the early years of the companies and during the decade before the Sun ceased doing business.

 

If you were an employee, please make sure that you are listed under People and that your information is correct. Please notify us if you find that anyone (yourself, a colleague, a relative, etc.) is missing from the list or has been inaccurately identified in any way. We welcome corrections and more detail.

 

A MATTER OF HISTORY: Can You Help?

 

The late Leo Marks, in his book Between Silk and Cyanide (published in 1999 but written in the 1980s) describes the problem of finding a supplier able to print wartime agents’ codes on silk. He first had to obtain a sufficient supply of silk – which he did, from Courtaulds – and then had to find a printer capable of handling the top-secret work. He was given a list of six potential suppliers. The first five companies could not help him, but the sixth, located “in the heart of the City of London,” was more helpful; Marks records that this firm, run by “two elderly brothers,” turned out to have a connection with Marks himself, in that they had printed several of Marks & Co.’s catalogues for his father’s bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road. At the time his book was written, Marks could have been subject to the provisions of the Official Secrets Act, and he kept the firm’s name a secret, but we think this firm was probably Sun Engraving, and would like to hear from anyone who can shed any light on the matter.

 

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Sun Movie

The c.1935 Sun cine-film on this site is in MP4 format. We recommend that you allow it to download at least 75% before starting to watch it. Download takes about 20 minutes, and viewing time is approx. 8 minutes.

Please note that this new version is not as “speeded up” as the earlier one and is therefore a shade more realistic. It's also a larger image.

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Sun-Related Book

The Way of the Sun, the definitive history of the Sun (limited edition)
This is the first-ever full-length history of Sun Engraving / Sun Printers, by Peter Greenhill and Brian Reynolds. A handsome, hard-cover book (416 pages), it contains hundreds of photographs in colour and black & white, many never before published. The book will be of great interest to former employees, their families, relatives, and friends. Those interested in Watford's history or the influence of the Sun on the development of mass-market colour printing will also find the book informative and enlightening.

Copies are still available in Croxley as well as by post. Price is £22 (plus P&P where necessary).

Contact:

Shirley Greenman

130 Baldwins Lane

Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Herts. WD3 3LJ

Tel.: 01 923 227 945