Not surprisingly, resident Tobacciana historian, Jon Guss, has done some research on Horry Jameson (often incorrectly spelled "Jamieson"). Jon gave the go-ahead to share what he gleaned:
It’s pretty sparse, and what it amounts to is this: Horace Jameson was born on July 2, 1906 in London (the parish of Homerton St Paul in Hackney, to be specific) to William John Jameson (1867-1927) and Jane Maria Grover (1870-1955). His father had nothing to do with the pipe or tobacco trades; he is variously described as a rug dresser, rug finisher, sheep skin rug dresser, etc. The Jamesons had been in the London area since at least the mid-1700s.
Horace was one of ten sons, nine of whom survived to maturity; the sort of astonishing fertility you see in late Victorian/Edwardian families, but seems unbelievable today. It is interesting to note that at least one of the other children, the eldest son William, was also in the pipe trade for some period of time. The 1911 census, when the family was still living in Hackney, describes him as a “briar pipe fitter”. While pure speculation, it’s tough to resist the inference that Horace’s entry into the trade a few years later was directly related to his older brother’s involvement. Was William at Barling too? Is that how Horry wound up there for the early part and majority of his working life?
As for when Horace started in the business, I have an article I found on the subject of “freak” carvings (which was discussed a few months back on pipesmagazine.com) which specifically states that he began at the age of 14; this would suggest that Horry started in 1920, perhaps plus or minus a year. This is consistent with other Barling workmen who we know started at about the same age, based on trade journal articles that I have previously dug up.
Horry married a woman named Gladys May Bale in 1952 at the fairly advanced age of 45. He died on May 17, 1984, and his wife Gladys (who had been born in 1920, about the time Horry started at Barling) survived him by another 25 years. And there we have a missed opportunity. She only died six years ago; think how much we could have learned by talking to her!
The details on Horry’s career are a bit murky. I think the heart of it is that he spend over forty years at Barling, with a clear specialty niche in the area of what they called “freak briars”. Jameson left in the wake of the various disruptions which followed the Finlay acquisition, landing at Cadogan; certainly the next phase of his career shows work done for both GBD and Comoy. Pipes that Pete saw in about 1980 were according to him sub-standard, hardly surprising since Jameson would have been about 76 at the time, and may well have not been as actively involved in the carving as he had been.
