John Compton (1876–1957), born in Newton Burgoland, Leicestershire was a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

builder. His business based in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

and London flourished between 1902 and 1965.

Life

John Compton was educated at

King Edward's School, Birmingham King Edward's School (KES) is an independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the British Public school (UK), public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by Edward VI of England, King Edward VI in 1552, it ...

and then studied as an apprentice with Halmshaw & Sons in Birmingham. In 1898 he joined Brindley and Foster in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

.Douglas Earl Bush, Richard Kassel, ''The organ: an encyclopedia''. Routledge, 2006, p.122. Then he joined Charles Lloyd in Nottingham. He set up the business Musson & Compton in 1902 in

with James Frederick Musson. The partnership dissolved in 1904. In 1919, the business moved to workshops at Turnham Green Terrace, Chiswick, London, which had been vacated by August Gern. He occupied a new factory at Chase Road, Park Royal, North Acton, London in 1930. Compton worked primarily on electric-action pipe organs and

electronic organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed ...

s. Compton's first electronic instrument was the Melotone (a solo voice added to

theatre organs A theatre organ (also known as a theater organ, or, especially in the United Kingdom, a cinema organ) is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s. Theatre organs have horseshoe-shaped arrangements o ...

); next came the Theatrone. The Electrone, an

electrostatic Electrostatics is a branch of physics that studies electric charges at rest (static electricity). Since classical times, it has been known that some materials, such as amber, attract lightweight particles after rubbing. The Greek word for amber ...

tonewheel A tonewheel or tone wheel is a simple electromechanical apparatus used for generating electric musical notes in electromechanical organ instruments such as the Hammond Organ and in telephony to generate audible signals such as Ringing tone. It ...

instrument introduced in 1938, evolved out of research by Leslie Bourn, an association begun in the 1920s. Throughout his organ-building career, John Compton was assisted by the very capable and inventive James Isaac Taylor, who spent his entire working life with the Compton firm prior to his death in 1958. John Compton also befriended a wealthy industrialist by the name of Albert Henry Midgley; one of the founders of C A Vandervell, which was later to become CAV-Lucas Ltd; a major supplier of electrical equipment to the motor industry. Midgley was one of the most prolific inventors of his age, with over 900 inventions to his name and following a rift with C A V-Lucas,he was appointed Technical Director of the Compton firm soon after, in 1925. Midgley's genius in electrical engineering and mass-production techniques, helped the Compton firm to achieve an extraordinary level of productivity. The company were awarded many original patents in things ranging from simple organ mechanisms to the most complex, state of the art electronic and electrical inventions. Many of those patents show that Midgley was cited as the inventor. On 13 June 1940, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Compton was arrested while holidaying on the island of Capri, in Italy. He was interned as an enemy alien but spent much of his time restoring pipe organs, before being permitted to return to England. Compton died in 1957, and the business continued under the direction of his right-hand man, James I Taylor. Taylor died the year after in 1958, and the business was wound up around 1965. The pipe organ department was sold to

Rushworth and Dreaper Rushworth and Dreaper was a firm of organ builders, and later general instrument suppliers associated with Paul McCartney based in Liverpool. The manufacturer was founded in 1828 by William Rushworth, operating until 2002. Upon its liquidation, ...

; the electronic department became Makin Organs.

Compton organs

Compton cinema organs, built by the John Compton Organ Company of Acton, were the most prevalent of

theatre organ A theatre organ (also known as a theater organ, or, especially in the United Kingdom, a cinema organ) is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s. Theatre organs have horseshoe-shaped arrangements o ...

s in the UK; 261 were installed in cinemas and theatres in the British Isles. Comptons made many fine church and concert organs as well. Their cinema organs employed the latest technology and engineering and many are still in existence today. One of the most notable is the large 5 manual example at the Odeon Cinema Leicester Square in central London.

List of new organs

All Souls' Church, Radford All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All al ...

1903 * Emmanuel Church, Nottingham 1903 * United Methodist Free Church, Stapleford 1903 * Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall 1903 *Emmanuel Church, New Park St, Leicester 1905 *

St Wilfrid's Church, Cantley St Wilfrid's Cantley is a Grade II* listed church in Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, and serves as the parish church for the areas of Cantley, Bessacarr and Branton. It is a traditionalist Anglo-Catholic church within the Church of Engl ...

1905 *

Selby Abbey Selby Abbey is an Anglican parish church in the town of Selby, North Yorkshire, England. It is Grade I listed. Monastic history It is one of the relatively few surviving abbey churches of the medieval period, and, although not a cathedral, ...

1906 *St. Peter's School Chapel,

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

1907 *Launceston Wesleyan Church 1909 *Holdenhurst Road Methodist Church,

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

1909 *Westbourne Wesleyan Church, Bournemouth 1910 *

Shakespeare Street Wesleyan Reform Chapel Shakespeare Street Wesleyan Reform Chapel is a former Wesleyan Reform church on Shakespeare Street in Nottingham, England. It is a Grade II listed building. It was converted in 1953 to a synagogue and is now a university hall. History The churc ...

, Nottingham 1914 *Stowmarket Parish Church, 1922 *St Swithun's Church,

Cheswardine Cheswardine is a rural village and civil parish in north east Shropshire, England. The village lies close to the border with Staffordshire and is about 8 miles north of Newport and 5 miles south east of Market Drayton. At the 2001 Census, the p ...

, Shropshire, 1922 memorial for those killed in the 1914-1918 war *

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, i ...

Pavilion 1923
Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre 1929
*

Elite Picture Theatre, Nottingham The Elite Picture Theatre, Nottingham was a cinema open from 1921 to 1977 in Nottingham. History The cinema was designed by the firm of Adamson & Kinns of London in the Beaux-Arts style, with 250 tons of steel frame, concrete floors and expensiv ...

1930 *Chapel Cranleigh School Surrey 1930. Eight Ranks, Three manuals. Lasted until 1978. Verifiable on NPOR site *

Church of St Osmund, Parkstone St Dunstan of Canterbury Orthodox Church is an Antiochian Orthodox church in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset. It is the parish church for Bournemouth and Poole within the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of The British Isles and Ireland. A Grade II* lis ...

1931 *

Downside Abbey Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Both t ...

1931 *St. Mary Magdelene's Church, Paddington 1932 *Church of St Edmund the King and Martyr, Lombard Street, London 1932 * BBC Concert Hall Broadcasting House, London 1932 *

Broadway Theatre, Catford The Broadway Theatre (formerly known as the Lewisham Theatre) is a theatre on Rushey Green, Catford, in the London Borough of Lewisham. A grade II listed building, the theatre was built in 1932 and is an example of Art Deco design. It has two aud ...

, 1932:- (contemporaneously, a music hall) * Plaza Cinema, Stockport 1932 *

St Luke's Church, Chelsea The Parish Church of St Luke, Chelsea, is an Anglican church, on Sydney Street, Chelsea, London SW3, just off the King's Road. Ecclesiastically it is in the Deanery of Chelsea, part of the Diocese of London. It was designed by James Savage in 1 ...

1932 *Odeon Cinema,

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmixon ...

1935 *St. Benedict's Priory, Ealing 1935 *East Church of St Nicholas, Aberdeen 1936
Southampton Guildhall 1936Regent Street Cinema, London 1936
* Odeon Cinema, Leicester Square 1937 *Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Worthing 1937 (formerly St Columba's Presbyterian Church) *

Wolverhampton Civic Hall The Halls Wolverhampton, formally known as Wolverhampton Civic Halls is a music venue in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It has been one of the most notable live music venues in the county for several decades. It is part of a complex als ...

1938 *Methodist Mission, Great Yarmouth 1938 * St John's Cathedral, Salford 1938 *

Church House A church, church building or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th thro ...

, Westminster 1939 *

Christchurch Priory Christchurch Priory is an ecclesiastical parish and former priory church in Christchurch in the English county of Dorset (formerly in Hampshire). It is one of the longest parish churches in the country and is as large as many of the Church of E ...

1951 * St Eugene's Cathedral,

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

1956 *

St Bride's Church St Bride's Church is a church in the City of London, England. The building's most recent incarnation was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672 in Fleet Street in the City of London, though Wren's original building was largely gutted by fire d ...

London 1957 *

St George's Cathedral, Southwark The Metropolitan Cathedral Church of St George, usually known as St George's Cathedral, Southwark, is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark, south London, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Southwark. The cathedral i ...

1958 * St Alban Golders Green, London *

Westover (now ABC) Cinema, Bournemouth Westover may refer to: People * Al Westover (born 1954), American professional basketball player in Australia * Arthur Westover (1864–1935), Canadian sport shooter and 1908 Olympian * Charles Westover (1934–1990), better known as Del Shannon, ...

c.1937 *

Astoria Cinema, Pokesdown Astoria is a placename, ultimately named for businessman John Jacob Astor (1763–1848), in the 1840s the wealthiest person in the United States and, as a hotel name, his great-grandson William Waldorf Astor (1848–1919). The name was first used ...

c.1930s (the last two organs are unconfirmed, but their existence is attested to by local documentary sources; the Westover instrument is now in private hands at Ryde on the Isle of Wight; the Astoria instrument no longer exist) *

Southern Grammar School for Boys, Portsmouth Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

c. 1957 *

Portsmouth Guildhall Portsmouth Guildhall is a multi-use building in the centre of Portsmouth, UK, located on a pedestrian square close to the Portsmouth and Southsea railway station. Constructed in 1890, the building was known as Portsmouth Town Hall until 1926. It ...

1959 * St.Alban's Holborn 1961

Rebuilds and restorations

Holy Trinity Church, Hull Hull Minster is the Anglican minster and the parish church of Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The church was called Holy Trinity Church until 13 May 2017 when it became Hull Minster. History It is the largest pa ...

1938 *

Holy Trinity Church, Exmouth Holy Trinity Church, Exmouth is a Grade II* listed parish church in the Church of England in Exmouth. History The church was built between 1824 and 1825 by John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle at the cost of £13,000. The chancel was added by Lady Ro ...

1953 *Christ Church Pennington, Leigh - 1953 *St Catherine, Bearwood, Wokingham, Berkshire. 1952 (NPOR A00449) *Tower Hill Methodist Church,

Hessle Hessle () is a town, civil parish and electoral ward in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, west of Kingston upon Hull city centre. Geographically it is part of a larger urban area consisting of the city of Kingston upon Hull, the town of ...

2001 (Formerly at Oxted United Reformed Church, Surrey)

References

Other sources

Ivor Buckingham, ''The Compton List: dedicated to the John Compton Organ Company and its products''
- includes details on Theatrones and Electrones

External links

Electrokinetica, ''Introducing the Compton Electrone''
Includes a thorough technical description. Accessed 29 Oct 2009. *. Includes sound of organ. Accessed 29 Oct 2009. *. Accessed 29 March 2010. *. Accessed 29 March 2010. *. Accessed 29 March 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Compton, John British pipe organ builders Inventors of musical instruments People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham 1876 births 1957 deaths People from Nottingham English musical instrument makers