The Chairman of the Board from 1895 to 1912 was Stratten Boulnois. A prominent Board member was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who chaired at least one Board meeting c1917.
The Directors' Minute Books contain interesting industrial history. An example of this is the successful measures to resist trade union demands in 1913 for higher wages, and for the same wages to be paid to all employees regardless of levels of skill and experience. The minutes, and an enclosed letter to the Salvation Army, describe how Besson & Co formed an alliance with their main competitors in London, Hawkes & Son and Boosey & Co, to agree a common response (a lock out of union members) in the event of industrial action. (The Boosey & Co Instrument Books show that wage levels remained low until 1918.)
Another interesting episode is Besson's trouble with their United States agents, Carl Fischer, who (according to the Minute Books) over priced Besson instruments to the point at which the larger instruments were unsaleable in the U.S., did not have the capacity to handle coast to coast distribution, and were guilty of using Besson tradenames such as "Prototype" for instruments by other makers.
Minute books
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Collection Information
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