Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
A. Kershaw & Son (Leeds, England)
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Kershaw & Son (Leeds, England)
- A. Kershaw & Sons
- A. Kershaw and Son
- A. Kershaw and Sons
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1888-1921
History
A. Kershaw & Son, manufacturers of scientific and electrical instruments, was founded in 1888 in Leeds by Abram Kershaw (1861-1929). The company began producing photographic equipment in the early 1900s. In 1904, Abraham registered two patents: one for measuring the speed of photographic shutters and another for improvements to cameras, including a folding mirror mechanism, thus making the birth of the single-lens reflex camera. This mechanism was manufactured for a range of companies, including the London Stereoscopic Company's Artist Reflex camera.
After the First World War, A. Kershaw & Son established two additional subsidiary marketing companies, one of which was the Kershaw Optical Co. This subsidiary partnered with Marion and Co. to open sales depots in major cities across the United Kingdom and to build a network of sales outlets for their photographic and optical equipment.
In 1921, Kershaw Optical Co., along with the parent company A. Kershaw & Son, joined five other firms to form the Amalgamated Photographic Manufacturers (APM). As an independent entity, A. Kershaw & Son ceased to exist.
The Kershaw brand departed the APM group in 1929 and continued camera production under the name Soho Ltd. During the Second World War, the company produced military optics such as gunsights and binoculars.
Around 1947, Kershaw was taken over by British Optical and Precision Engineers Limited (BOPE), a subsidiary of the Rank Organisation. Thereafter, cinema projection equipment became its main output. In the early 1960s, the manufacturing plant began to be sold off and production declined steadily. By 1981, only a caretaker remained employed. The Rank Organisation's Leeds operations were finally vacated around 1983.
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Internal structures/genealogy
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Level of detail
Partial
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Created, Kymberley Doyle, 11-Jul-2025.
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Sources
Science Museum Group. (n.d.). A. Kershaw and Sons Limited 1888. Science Museum Group website, accessed online 14-Jul-2025.