See also

Family of Sidney William Hamlyn and Thirza Maud Barnes

Husband: Sidney William Hamlyn (1883-1973)
Wife: Thirza Maud Barnes (1880-1927)
Marriage 8 Apr 1901 St Mary, Barnes, Surrey

Husband: Sidney William Hamlyn

Name: Sidney William Hamlyn
Sex: Male
Father: William Hamlyn (1832-1909)
Mother: Rose Watkins (c. 1853- )
Birth 24 Jan 1883 Pimlico, Middlesex
Baptism 27 Sep 1891 (age 8) St Peter, Fulham, Middlesex
Census 1911 (age 27-28) Designer, 32 Mostyn Road, Handsworth, Birmingham
Death fact 1973 (age 89-90) 1973 Jun Q, Haringey, 5b/2044
Death 1 Jun 1973 (age 90) Haringey

Wife: Thirza Maud Barnes

Name: Thirza Maud Barnes
Sex: Female
Father: -
Mother: -
Birth 1880 Roehampton, Surrey
Birth fact 1880 (age 0) GRO Reference: 1880 M Quarter in FULHAM Volume 01A Page 211
Mother's maiden name = Arnold
Census 1911 (age 30-31) Wife in household (married 10 years, 3 children, 3 living)
Death fact 1927 (age 46-47) 1927 Jun Q, Croydon, 2a/333 (aged 47)
Death 1927 (age 46-47) Croydon, Surrey

Note on Husband: Sidney William Hamlyn

Sidney William Hamlyn (1883-1973) applied to the Regent Polytechnic to train as an architect, but was unsuccessful. In 1900 he started work for Faraday & sons, a lighting manufacturer and retailer in London. This was at a time when electrical and gas lighting were competing for dominance in home and industry. One of Sidney's early patents (at least 15 US patents are recorded in his name) was for a remote electrical igniter for gas chandeliers. In 1909 he moved his family up to Mostyn Road, Birmingham, having become chief designer for Best and Lloyd, Lighting and metalwork manufacturer and retailer.

In 1913 he set up his own business in London, Kerswell, Falulkner and Hamlyn Ltd, which during the First World War manufactured turnbuckles and fastenings for aeroplanes, including the famous Sopwith Camel. The company did not survive the post-war slump and was disbanded in 1919. Sidney then went into business with Louis Last on the agreed basis that the names of the company should be in alphabetical order. Last, according to family legend, changed his name shortly before the incorporation by deed-poll to Dernier, so the company became Dernier and Hamlyn Ltd.

This concern designed and patented lighting products in the 1920s which included the Litlux bedlamp and the Neolux lighting range. The latter was developed extensively and widely advertised. D & H exhibited at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition in the 1920s and 30s. Lighting fittings were sold to retailers such as Heal and Son Ltd, Hyders Ltd, Lyons Ltd, Maple & Co Ltd, and Rashleigh Phipps and Co. Major commissions included the design of the lighting for London Cinemas and theatres, including the Cambridge and Phoenix Theatres, Charing Cross Road. Hotel commissions included the Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly and the Victoria Hotel in Northumberland Avenue. His best contribution, he said, was to the renovation of Inigo Jones's Banqueting Hall in Whitehall. He also designed the lighting for University College Library and the Wellcome Institute in London. Outside London his work extended to the Opera House in Tunbridge Wells. At much of the time, the manufacturing (mainly brass-work) was based in Hanway Place, just off Oxford Street. Lampshades were sewn by out-workers; there was a showroom in Newman Street, near the old Middlesex Hospital. Eventually the firm moved to South London, where it still is, having meantime received a Royal Warrant.

Sidney William Hamlyn married twice and had two sons, Leslie and Sydney William, and a daughter, Muriel. Both sons worked for some time in the company, as did his second wife, Louise, née Harrison. Sidney died in 1973 of heart failure at home in Highgate. He was cremated at Golders Green cemetery.

Sources: Guide to the Archive of Art and Design, Victoria & Albert Museum, Elizabeth Lomas (ed.), 2001, and private communication from Adrian Hamlyn.