This week we continue with our look at the history of iconic British company Hypnos, which was formed by the merger of two Wycombe companies G H & S Keen and W S Toms. In the first article in this series, on March 8, we described the early history of G H & S Keen, we now consider that of W S Toms.

The Toms company had been founded by Walter Samuel Toms who was born in High Wycombe in 1884. By the age of 16 he was working, like his father William Richard Toms, as an upholstery craftsman. Around 1900 the family moved to Chesham to live at No.15, Market Sq in the town centre.

In about 1907 Walter established his own mattress-making workshop at No. 456 Berkhamstead Road, Chesham. The following year he married Alethia Kate Rance and moved to live at Sands View, West Wycombe Road, High Wycombe.

In 1911 Walter was still working as a bedding manufacturer at his workshop in Chesham and living in High Wycombe. He had been joined by his younger brother Harold.

The business was obviously successful because in the following year it was one of the first to acquire its own motorised delivery van.

By 1913 Walter had established a factory at the Standard Works, Totteridge Ave, High Wycombe. Two of his brothers Harold and Christopher were working for him. The firm was soon advertising in the Bucks Free Press (BFP) for ‘’respectable YOUTHS, about 16 to learn Mattress Making’’. During WWI the factory made bedding for both public and military hospitals. In July 1916 the firm were employing 12 male and 12 female workers.

Because of his importance to the business Walter was exempted from military service during the war. His three brothers served in the army with distinction.

Christopher enlisted in September 1914 immediately after the war began and served in the Kings Royal Rifles and the Devonshires. He was severely wounded, discharged on April 17, 1917. and awarded a Silver War Badge.

Harold enlisted in April 1915 and served in the 6th Tank Corps.

He was also severely wounded, discharged on May 9, 1918 and awarded a Silver War Badge.

Gordon the youngest of the family’s four sons was a signaller in the Duke of Cambridge’s Own Middlesex Regiment. He was awarded the Military Medal in January 1919, the citation written by his Commanding Officer stating “Between the 20th and 30th of September 1918, during operations S.W. of Villers-Guislain, Signaller Toms continuously showed great bravery and untiring energy in establishing and maintaining telephonic communication under heavy shell-fire, between the front line and Headquarters. On several occasions during this period signaller Toms, singlehanded, mended cables under heavy fire and in the most trying circumstances.

His courage and coolness were most notable.”

The Toms family were staunch members of the Union Baptist church in Easton Street, High Wycombe. It would have been a source of great pride to the family that three of their sons had served with such courage and distinction in the Great War.

What would have been the effect of this on Walter, who had been exempt from military service due to his importance to the company. Perhaps it was this that drove him to aspire to become a public figure and devote so much of his time to the service of the Wycombe community.

He was an extremely resourceful man, and after the war channelled his abilities and energy in ways other than just the development of the family business. In 1920 he was elected to Wycombe Borough Council, becoming Mayor for 1932/33, a position which he fulfilled with his customary enthusiasm and devotion to duty. So much so in fact that he was asked to continue for a further year, 1933/34.

He was a member of the Wycombe Orpheus Male Choir and its’ President in the early 1930s. In 1941 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace on the High Wycombe Bench.

Shortly after the war ended the firm was set-up as a limited company. In 1920 another factory was established, in Exeter, at Haven Banks in the city centre. Walter’s brother Christopher was the local representative for the Haven Works, but he left in 1927 to establish another mattress manufacturer ‘Snugdown’. Shortly afterwards the Exeter factory was destroyed by fire, so temporary premises had to be established in the St Thomas’s area of the city.

Around this time a third factory was set up, the ‘North of England Factory and Showrooms’ at 353 Chester Rd, Manchester.

It was in the early 1930s when W.S.Toms Ltd first started to use the name ‘’Hypnos’’, this being the brand name for a new range of beds.

To be continued.