Life Story Part 3 :: 1950 - 1973

With the help of Ivy, the business thrived and developed into a leading international supplier of new, antiquarian and second hand books and periodicals, mainly on entomology.  The Entomologist's Gazette also became a respected and renowned periodical within the scientific world.

 

[Above: Group at Ham Street Station in 1955 for a collecting trip]

Eric is also widely regarded as an authority on British moths and butterflies and over the course of his career travelled widely throughout the world combining his scientific expertise with his love of foreign travel.   The thriving worldwide entomological community created a wealth of friends, colleagues and opportunities leading to life-long friendships spread across the world. Eric, frequently accompanied by Ivy, visited places as far flung as North America, The Caribbean, Europe including Czechoslovakia and Poland, Russia, Japan, Singapore, Borneo, Madeira, Nigeria and the Scottish Islands!

    

[Above left: Eric with Dr Asahina from Japan.  Above right: Glamorous Ladies Night group]

Eric became a Freemason in 1950, the beginning of a life-long commitment to Freemasonry.  The frequent Ladies Nights were a wonderful opportunity for Eric and Ivy to look totally glamorous and show their magic on the dance floor.

  [Left: the morning ritual of checking the moth trap.]

 During this period, the business expanded into new premises in Old Isleworth and then in early 1960s, Eric and Ivy moved the family and business into 347 & 353 Hanworth Road, Hampton, an elegant Victorian house large enough to cope with the family and the business needs.

Eric was appointed a Committee member of the Rothschild-Cockayne-Kettlewell Trust as a nominee of the South London Entomological and Natural History Society in 1966 and later became Chairman.  He was also appointed a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.  And to fill in his spare time, Eric was also invited to become a JP, a task which he performed for some years.

This was also a time of family growth and change.  Eldest son, Lyn, who was serving in the RAF, married Wendy and they lived for many years in Singapore before returning to the UK to settle.  They later had two children, John (born in 1969) and Nicola (born in 1972).

[Left: Wendy Classey with a friend in Singapore]

Peter married Stephanie and they lived in the surrounding areas of Middlesex and Surrey for many years.  They later had a daughter, Adriana (born in 1982).

Ian married and had two children - Julian (born in 1964) and Amanda (born in 1965).

Sally joined the family business in 1968, working alongside her parents to help to continue the development of the company.

In 1973, the major decision was made to relocate the business to purpose built premises in Faringdon, Oxfordshire.  Eric and Ivy moved to Southrop, a beautiful tiny Cotswold village and Sally moved to Wantage, close to Faringdon.  The move provided much-needed storage for the growing publishing element of the company and improved the production of the famous catalogues, prepared and printed in-house and distributed around the world.

 

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