Thomas Pears

The 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. On April 10^th 1912 titanic set sail on its maiden voyage from South Hampton. The ship had on board 2200 passengers and crew it was one of the deadliest peacetime disasters. She was believed to be “unsinkable” but, only four days into her voyage titanic hit an ice berg on the 14^th April at 11:40pm less than three hours the ship sank.

RMS Titanic, one of the biggest and most luxurious ocean liners of its time. It was 269 meters long. Journalists at the time said it was as long as three city blocks and as tall as an 11-storey building. The Titanic was described at the time as being as luxury being compared to the best hotels at the time. Even second and third class was better than any other ships of its time.

On board Titanic was Thomas Clinton Pears who was 29 when he died in the sinking of the Titanic. He was the great great grandson of Andrew Pears the founder of the Soap-manufacturing company A&F Pears LTD. Thomas joined the company in 1903, he was not a director of the company but, he was responsible for the running Isleworth Works and Lanadrom Rubber's estates in Malaya.

Thomas was a keen sports man. He supported the Pears' Athletic Club and participted in motor car and motor cycle races. Two gold medals remain in the possession of the Crowe family. The inscriptions the medals record his participation in 'The 23 Hours Run, London - Edinburgh on May 28-29, 1908 Car' and 'The 24 Hours Run, London to Edinburgh, June 5th and 6th, 1908, Car'. Tom had had the two medals mounted as table napkin rings, inscribed 'T.P' and 'E.P' respectively

Thomas married Edith Wearne on September 1910. Between them they had a wide circle of friends in the neighbourhood and Edith was reported as endearing herself to all those who knew her. They worshipped together at St John the Baptist Church, Woodlands, Isleworth.

In 1912, three years after his father's death, Tom prepared to cross the Atlantic, possibly to look at a site for his company's expansion into America. He boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passenger (ticket number 113776 £66, 12s), he and Edith occupied cabin C-2. At 6.05 p.m. on 13 April a radio message was sent from the Titanic via the S.S. Potsdam to the company's Isleworth Works, which read 'All well, telephone Hampstead [his wife's family address] and Pyrford'. The message would not arrive at the works until 1.30pm on Monday 15 April leading to considerable confusion over whether Mr Pears had survived or not. Edith was rescued in lifeboat 8.

Memorial services for Tom Pears included one held on Sunday 21 April at St John's, Isleworth, attended by about 1,200 people, including many of his local workforce, collections at these services were donated to local charities that he had been connected with.

After Thomas Death Edith was left a sum of £16,763 10s 7d so Edith was probably well provided for however, she was shocked to learn that she could not continue to live at her home as it was a company-owned house.

During the first world war Edith, at her father's suggestion, was sharing a London flat with Norah, the daughter of an old friend of his, Dr. Crowe. Edith served as a nurse in the British Red Cross, for whom she drove an ambulance. She also joined the WRNS, for whom she drove a cab, her main duties being to fetch Admirals and other senior officers from the Admiralty, from their Clubs at night! Norah's brother Mr D. V. Crowe was an electrical engineer by training. His poor eyesight had ruled him unfit for military service. He therefore became a tea-planter in the South of India at When he came home on leave, he met Edith while visiting his sister. In due course they were engaged, then married. A daughter was born in Travancore in 1920 and a son in 1924, at Worcester Park, Surrey.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4258888/Haunting-whistle-blew-at-1140pmas-wreck-of-Titanic-lay-below-us.html

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Descendant-soap-entrepreneur-perished/story-15781028-detail/story.html

Bubbles

Andrew Pears enlisted the help of Thomas J Barrett to devise a marketing strategy, he was a relative of the creator, albeit a few generations younger. He pioneered systematic brand advertising combining distinctive imagery with frequently repeatedly slogans like “Good morning. Have you used Pears Soap?”. The most iconic advert, “Bubbles” is still well known today, it has been reproduced on a plethora of merchandise over the years and is synonymous with British nostalgia. Barrett had a keen eye for art and often bought rights to pieces of art work in order to subtlety modify them into commercial advertisements. This was at a time when art was very inaccessible for ordinary people, Pears Soap gave way for art to be in ordinary people’s houses, and reproductions of the advert were even hung on walls which are a marvel even by today’s standards.

Bubbles, originally titled A Child's World, is a painting by Sir John Everett Millias that became famous when it was used over many generations in advertisements for Pears soap. During Millais's lifetime it led to widespread debate about the relationship between art and advertising.
The painting was one of many child pictures for which Millais had become well known in his later years. It was modelled by his five year old grandson William Milbourne James

The painting portrays a young golden-haired boy looking up at a bubble, symbolising the beauty and fragility of life. On one side of him is a young plant growing in a pot, and on the other is a fallen broken pot, emblematic of death. He is spot-lit against a gloomy background.

The painting was first exhibited in 1886 under the title A Child's World at the Grosevenor Gallery  in London, and was acquired by Sir William Ingram of the Illustrated London News.  The painting was reproduced and presented in the weekly newspaper as a colour plate, where it was seen by Thomas J. Barratt, Managing director of A&F Pears. Barratt purchased the original painting from Ingram for £2,200 which gave him exclusive copyright on the picture. Millais' permission was sought in order to alter the picture by the addition of a bar of Pears Soap, so that it could be used for the purposes of advertising. At the time Millais was one of the most popular artists in Britain and he was initially apprehensive the prospect of his work and his grandson, being the subject of commercial exploitation. However when he was shown the proofs of the proposed advertisements he grew to appreciate the idea, which portrayed the soap as if the child had used it to make the bubbles.

 Following the success of this advertisement Millais was attacked in print by the novelist  Marie Corelli who accused him in her novel The Sorrows of Satan of prostituting his talent to sell soap. Millais wrote to her pointing out that he had sold the copyright of the painting and so was unable to stop the company from altering it in reproduction. Millais's son later claimed that he had tried to stop the advertisement being made, but had been advised that he had no legal power to do so. Corelli retracted her comments in a later edition of the book.

The advertisement became so well known that William Milburne James  who later rose to the rank of Admiral in the British navy, was known as "Bubbles" for the rest of his life.

Pears Shilling Cyclopaedia

The most orginal advertisement of all for Pears Soap was the Little Red Shilling Cyclopaedia. it was first printed for A&F Pears by David Byrce and Son of Glasgow. it was Published in December 1897, the year of Queen Victorias Diamond Jubillee. The First addition contained an English dictionary, medical dictionary, a gazetteer  and a atlas, desk information and a compendium of general knowledge entitled "A Mass of Curious and Useful Information about things that everyone ought to know in commerce, History, Science, Religion, Literature and other useful topics of Ordinary conversation ". The idea behind the Cylopaedia was to keep the general public informed on issues of the day, to equip them of social discourse and to satisfy their curious minds for knowledge.

The idea behind the Cylopaedia was to keep the general public informed on issues of the day, to equip them of social discourse and to satisfy their curious minds for knowledge. the Cyclopaedia ranged from from hard facts to questions of etiquette.

Previous Pears Public Relations

Currency

In the 19^th century Pears imported a quarter of a million French pennies and imprinted the Pears Soap name on them and then flung them into circulation. These pennies were generally accepted as currency and was one of pears earliest publicity stunts. There was no law against defacing foreign coins until Parliament introduced an Act which declared all foreign coins illegal tender. This lead to all the coins being rounded up and melted down but the rare few which managed to survive have become expensive collector’s items.

Miss Pears
Miss Pears was a competition run by Pears Soap starting in 1959. Adverts were placed in newspapers which offered parents the chance to enter their daughter into the competition to be the next face of Pears and also to win a cash prize of Adverts were placed in newspapers which offered parents the chance to enter their daughter into the competition to be the next face of Pears and also to win a cash prize of £500. The competition had several conditions for entry. The child must be under 12 years of age, must be a permanent resident in the UK and is not a professional model. To enter the completion applicants simply sent in a photo of their child that was taken in the last year with some personal details and awaited the response. In 1997 market research conducted by Pears revealed that the once young family purchasers of Pears had moved to alternate brands and the new users of Pears were Style conscious single people which led to the Miss Pears competition being seen as a waste of money and a final competition was held in 1997 in which the winners mother was rushed to hospital suffering mystery illness and missed the crowning of her daughter Ella Cox.

Cyclopaedia

Thomas J. Barratt who revolutionised the way Pears promoted the brand came up with several forms of promotion including the production of the Pears Shilling Cyclopaedia in 1891. The cyclopaedia contained a world atlas and pages of interesting facts from throughout the year. The cyclopaedia turned out to be so successful that one was produced every year and on several occasions more than one was produced a year depending on demand.

 

Pears Annual

In the same year Thomas J. Barratt produced the Pears Annual which ran until 1925. The book promoted contemporary illustrations and colour printing. The annuals were produced every Christmas and contained Christmas stories along with adverts which came with presentation prints.

Pears Collectables

Thomas J. Barratt was at the forefront of the Pears revolution he produced countless different forms of promotional material ranging from simple stationary to at one point getting the Pears logo on several stamps he also managed to produce rulers, paper napkins, glass miniature tablets, china figurines, school atlases and many more that have been forgotten due to the vast quantity of items produced. These items are still promoting the brand to this day as all of these items are now classed as collectables and are bought and sold all over the world.

Thomas J Barratt

Thomas J Barratt is considered by many to be “the Father of Modern Advertising”.

In 1865 Thomas married into the Pears family by marring the founder Andrew Pears great granddaughter Mary Pears. Within a few months Barratt had revolutionised Pears distribution system making it more effective than ever. After this success Barratt decided to turn his hand to the sales side of the company in began using some of the most original and successful publicity schemes of its day.

The then owner of Pears, Francis Pear, feared for the company’s future and withdrew from the company leaving only a loan of £4,000 to run the company on. It was Barratt’s fearless and creative forms of promoting Pears that managed to save the brand most notably his methods of PR.