by Ron Johnson, age 75
Liveryman, Gunmaker’s Company
Many people, many times over many years have said I should write down, while my brain works, tales of my family history and some of the weird and wonderful characters we have had dealings with over the year. Especially as we are one of the oldest, if not the oldest, direct blood line father and son relationship going back to the early 1800s in the gun trade. See the genealogy chart which was researched by an independent expert.
Although, there have been a couple of hiccoughs. Firstly, my grandfather, Sam Johnson, a great character of whom I could write a whole book. His maxim was “the work and who you do it for always comes first” and that’s still the same today.
He had four children, three boys and a girl. The eldest two boys, Leslie and Norman, although married fairly young, unfortunately had no children which left it to the younger son, Stanley, (my father) to keep the line going. There were no more boys but I have two sisters. I, in turn, had three children, son Matt who is now a major part of the business, and twin girls, more about them later. My son Matt has a son, George Johnson, still at school, and one daughter.
The second hiccough was the 2nd World War. We were bombed out at Harrow Road, about half a mile from the Holland and Holland factory, which luckily did not wipe out any family members. However, most of the previous family records, photos etc., were destroyed and they bombed my bike – which I will never forgive the Germans for! We were bombed out a second time, just around the corner from Harrow Road but luckily still no major injuries.
As a business, we have always been a top-end trade workshop specialising in finishing our barrels, blacking/blueing and Damascus browning and have always been located in London since 1924. We are now situated mid-way between West London Shooting Grounds and the Holland and Holland range. Before that we were at Kilburn Lane, mid-way between Holland and Holland and Purdey factories.
Although I am a barrel maker and my son Matt is a fully qualified Holland and Holland trained actioner, we both spend 90% of our time doing best quality blacking/blueing barrels – furnitures. Matt is the Damascus Brown expert – a very long process taking four to six weeks to finish as we brown them the same way as Granddad Sam Johnson passed on to me, which is how they were browned when he was young and when Damascus barrels were new.
As a business, we have a great bunch of workers, mostly old age pensioners who have been working for us for many years. We still make new barrels, re-sleeving, stocking and all gun repairs and renovations.
Daughter Samantha is a super star engraver, having won the most prestigious award for engraving, the Cartier Award, twice and she is the only woman ever to achieve this. She has her own very successful business in the Goldsmiths’ Centre in the City of London (see various photos) and obviously she does all of our engraving.
Her twin sister, Sarah, helps out with our admin work. She was also at the West London Shooting Grounds for quite a while, organising various activities.
One of the things that has given us the most amusement over the years is the amount of people who have tried to pass themselves off as having connections with us. From going around the trade saying they have worked with us to changing their name to Johnson. One guy actually set up a business with Johnson in the title and had an address in Kilburn, when our address was Kilburn Lane. And they are still at it today – but as one of our customers told us, it must be very flattering that so many people try to have a connection with us as it is obvious that we are the best. Our customers are always the first to tell us that there’s another wannabe Johnson on the scene.
Next month, more about Sam Johnson and our miniature firearms maker for the last 50 years.