Rampton of Herriard Chart 104

Rampton of Herriard Family Chart no. 104

	Arthur Charles RAMPTON		Etta Evangeline WHITE
	born circa 1860 at Alton, HAM		born circa 1864 at Isle of Wight, HAM
			m. 1882 at Isle of Wight, HAM
	d. 1937 aged 79 Surrey Mid E. RD [FreeBMD]		d. 1937 aged 74 Surrey Mid E. RD [FreeBMD]
	Watchmaker's Assistant (1891) Company Director Watchmaker & Jeweller (1901) Merchant (1911)

Their Children

Arthur Frederick Hettie Mabel Florence Mildred Stanley Charles Percy William Vernon Harry Leonard Wilfred Hetty Mabel Elsie Dora Basil Walter Sybil May Eva Beryl Muriel Gladys Eric John Sybil Evangeline Alan Godfrey

born circa 1883 at Lee Green, KEN born 1 Aug 1884 Lewisham RD KEN [GRO] born 1885 at Lee Green KEN [GRO] born circa 1887 at Westminster Bridge Road Lambeth [SRY] born circa 1888 at Lambeth, SRY born circa 1889 at Esher, SRY born circa 1891 at Kingston upon Thames, SRY born circa 1892 at Kingston upon Thames, SRY born circa 1893 at Kingston upon Thames, SRY born circa 1895 at Kingston upon Thames, SRY born circa 1896 at Kingston upon Thames, SRY born circa 1899 at Kingston upon Thames, SRY born circa 1901 at Kingston upon Thames, SRY born 7 Oct 1902 born 19 Mar 1905 at Kingston upon Thames, SRY born 26/27 Apr 1906

m. Cecile WIGG 7 Apr 1909 at Kingston upon Thames SRY [FreeBMD] m. Wilhelmina B NEVILLE 1914 at Kingston upon Thames SRY [FreeBMD] m. Ethel NAYLER 10 Jul 1913 at Kingston upon Thames SRY [FreeBMD] m. Elizabeth VINCENT 1916 at Kingston upon Thames SRY [FreeBMD] m. Clifford H OSBORNE 1922 at Kingston upon Thames SRY [FreeBMD] m. Alfred E SHRIMPTON 1926 at Kingston upon Thames SRY [FreeBMD] m. Phyllis M YEOMAN 1930 Wandsworth RD SRY [FreeBMD] m. Wilhelmina B NEVILLE (widow of Stanley Charles) 1943 Surrey NE RD [FreeBMD]

d. 1 Apr 1931 d. 23 Apr 1889, aged 4 d. 23 May 1939 Kensington RD [FreeBMD] d. 22 Dec 1951 d. 11 Aug 1985 aged 93 d. 1902 at Kingston [GRO] d. Jan 1987 d. 16 Dec 1983 d. 7 Apr 1997

Additional Information

Most of the detail on this chart came from Jacki Barter, a fellow researcher; the rest is supplemented by FreeBMD and GRO indexes. In 1891, the family lived in London Street Kingston SRY. In both the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the family lived in Kingston upon Thames SRY. From the death registration data it looks like Etta died in the first quarter of 1937 and Arthur Charles 8 or 9 months later.

Arthur Charles went on to found the Freemans mail order catalogue company. According to Freemans website, this is the history of the company:

1905 Freemans & Co. starts life in a terraced house in the London suburb of Clapham. Its founders are A.C. and S.C. Rampton, W.E. Jones, and H.A. Freeman. It employs just 12 staff, and a ‘Celebrated Freemans made-to-measure suit’ costs less than 30/- (£184.06 in today’s money). Most goods are sold on credit, with wives needing their husband’s signature to buy goods. Freemans uses Agents to sell goods from its 200 page, black-and-white illustrated catalogue; they are mainly men.

1906 Freemans moves to larger premises at 215 Lavender Hill Wandsworth. Company staff are soon nicknamed ‘The Lavender Hill Mob’.

1914 Freemans’ pre-war expansion stops, and the business focuses on buying blankets and selling them to the Government and the armed forces.

1922 Freemans has more than 200 staff, so moves into a converted cinema on Lavender Hill, formally known as the ‘Gem’. Colour pictures are introduced into the catalogue on a regular basis.

1932 Freemans is now the largest mail order business in Great Britain; larger than all its competitors put together. Some of its 30,000 agents managed to buy cars and houses with their commission money.

1937 Freemans moves into an old printing works at 139 Clapham Road, and becomes a Private Company. Freemans now sells labour-saving devices as vacuum cleaners in its catalogue.

1940 The Clapham Road building is bombed, killing 23 members of staff. Further bombing causes severe damage to the building and almost total destruction of the company’s records. Staff and Agent loyalty allows Freemans to survive these setbacks and continue trading.

1943 War shortages meant that no household items were available, only clothing. Coupon rates are introduced for the first time as a way to pay for Freemans clothes.

1945 Clothing coupons become the only way to pay for Freemans clothes. The number of staff working for Freemans drops to less than 300.

1950 Freemans expands rapidly with the post-war consumer boom, with many customers choosing to buy on credit. Freemans is now competing with the leading department stores of the day, selling a wide range of consumer goods in its full-colour, 1,000-plus page catalogue.

1963 Freemans becomes a Public Company, and installs its first computer.

1966 Freemans expands world-wide with its new International Division, which eventually wins the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 1995.

1969 Freemans opens an automated Distribution Centre at Peterborough, and is the first company to post goods in plastic packaging. It is also the first UK company to generate heat from waste packaging.

1979 Freemans is the first home shopping company in the UK to introduce a telephone ordering service for its agents.

1984 Freemans introduces a telephone system to deal with customer and agent queries.

1988 Freemans is bought by Sears PLC and becomes part of one of the country’s largest retail organisations. It now offers Sears’ High Street brands (Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Warehouse, Richards, Adams) in its catalogue.

1994 Freemans produces an interactive CD for its customers, which wins several awards.

1997 Freemans launches its shopping website, www.freemans.com. Sears announces the sale of Freemans.

1999 Freemans becomes part of the Otto Versand group. It has upwards of 1 million agents serving 3 million customers, with many more direct customers.

2005 Freemans launches its new-look website and introduces payment by credit and debit card in addition to its credit accounts.

The company has a Wikipedia page covering much of the same detail: Wikipedia

Family Group Identifiers

Family: HERRIARD1
Family Group: herriard104

1905	Freemans & Co. starts life in a terraced house in the London suburb of Clapham. Its founders are A.C. and S.C. Rampton, W.E. Jones, and H.A. Freeman. It employs just 12 staff, and a ‘Celebrated Freemans made-to-measure suit’ costs less than 30/- (£184.06 in today’s money). Most goods are sold on credit, with wives needing their husband’s signature to buy goods. Freemans uses Agents to sell goods from its 200 page, black-and-white illustrated catalogue; they are mainly men.
1906	Freemans moves to larger premises at 215 Lavender Hill Wandsworth. Company staff are soon nicknamed ‘The Lavender Hill Mob’.
1914	Freemans’ pre-war expansion stops, and the business focuses on buying blankets and selling them to the Government and the armed forces.
1922	Freemans has more than 200 staff, so moves into a converted cinema on Lavender Hill, formally known as the ‘Gem’. Colour pictures are introduced into the catalogue on a regular basis.
1932	Freemans is now the largest mail order business in Great Britain; larger than all its competitors put together. Some of its 30,000 agents managed to buy cars and houses with their commission money.
1937	Freemans moves into an old printing works at 139 Clapham Road, and becomes a Private Company. Freemans now sells labour-saving devices as vacuum cleaners in its catalogue.
1940	The Clapham Road building is bombed, killing 23 members of staff. Further bombing causes severe damage to the building and almost total destruction of the company’s records. Staff and Agent loyalty allows Freemans to survive these setbacks and continue trading.
1943	War shortages meant that no household items were available, only clothing. Coupon rates are introduced for the first time as a way to pay for Freemans clothes.
1945	Clothing coupons become the only way to pay for Freemans clothes. The number of staff working for Freemans drops to less than 300.
1950	Freemans expands rapidly with the post-war consumer boom, with many customers choosing to buy on credit. Freemans is now competing with the leading department stores of the day, selling a wide range of consumer goods in its full-colour, 1,000-plus page catalogue.
1963	Freemans becomes a Public Company, and installs its first computer.
1966	Freemans expands world-wide with its new International Division, which eventually wins the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement in 1995.
1969	Freemans opens an automated Distribution Centre at Peterborough, and is the first company to post goods in plastic packaging. It is also the first UK company to generate heat from waste packaging.
1979	Freemans is the first home shopping company in the UK to introduce a telephone ordering service for its agents.
1984	Freemans introduces a telephone system to deal with customer and agent queries.
1988	Freemans is bought by Sears PLC and becomes part of one of the country’s largest retail organisations. It now offers Sears’ High Street brands (Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Warehouse, Richards, Adams) in its catalogue.
1994	Freemans produces an interactive CD for its customers, which wins several awards.
1997	Freemans launches its shopping website, www.freemans.com. Sears announces the sale of Freemans.
1999	Freemans becomes part of the Otto Versand group. It has upwards of 1 million agents serving 3 million customers, with many more direct customers.
2005	Freemans launches its new-look website and introduces payment by credit and debit card in addition to its credit accounts.