From personal ephemera collection.
From personal ephemera collection.
From personal ephemera collection.
From personal ephemera collection.
Milner and Thompson
John Joseph Milner was born in 1844 in Brixton, London and he died in Christchurch in 1904. According to the NZ Musical Notables website he was an organist at the Holy Trinity in Avonside, Christchurch and from the late 1860s he worked for John Lewis at the Canterbury Music Depot becoming the manager at a later stage. Robert Thompson and John Milner purchased the Canterbury Music Depot in 1874 becoming partners in the business. Although John Milner remained in the business for only seven years, the name Milner and Thompson was retained. (Two UK Census records state that John Milner was born in Northampton. His father was a Minister. The family is living in Lambeth in the 1851 and 1861 Census. In the 1861 Census John is working as a clerk in a gas engineering business and his father, although not at home at the time of the Census, is listed as an author.
John Joseph Milner married Mary Elizabeth Bowley in 1869 in New Zealand.
Press 1st April 1869
In the Auckland Star on the 29th November 1880 there is a notice inserted by Mr H. Brett, owner of the Auckland Music Warehouse. It tells that he has sold the business to Messers J. J. Milner and Co. It goes on to tell ‘his long experience and intimate acquaintance with the Colonial Trade afford a thorough guarantee that all requirements of business will be fully supplied and customers will receive every attention’. On the same day, J. J. Milner stated that they were soliciting the patronage of Auckland’s public. It says that Milner, formerly of Milner and Thompson of Christchurch, has upwards of ten years’ experience in the Colonial Music Trade; and ‘with the Instruments and Music selected by him, they are confident that the Musical Public of Auckland will have at their disposal a stock that for completeness and variety, will be unapproached by that of any other similar establishment in the country’.
Auckland Music Warehouse had a box office as part of the business and music teachers used the address for their contact details. On the 11th June 1881, Milner announced the sale of the business to Angelo Forrest who had moved to Auckland to teach piano, organ and harmony at the Warehouse at the beginning of 1881. Forrest had been a pupil of Charles Halle, the renowned conductor and pianist.
In the Lyttelton times there is an obituary for John Joseph Milner on the 17th June 1904. It states that ‘coming to New Zealand he was first employed as assistant in the Grammar School. After occupying that position for some years Mr Milner was employed by Mr John Lewis as manager of his piano business’. This obituary states that Thompson and Milner purchased the business from Mr Lewis in 1874 and Milner stayed in the partnership for five years. After retiring from the business, he lived quietly at his home in Dallington. He was an avid chess player and was a member of the Christchurch Chess Club. At his death he left a widow, three sons and a daughter.
Robert Thompson was born in Roxeth, England in 1835. Thompson arrived in Lyttelton in 1856 however he didn’t stay for very long. On the 17th June 1860 Robert Thompson, of full age, a bachelor, a salesman married Emma Goodchild, of full age, a spinster at St John’s Church, Deptford, Kent. His father is Robert Thompson, glass cutter. Robert Thompson and his wife Emma, aged 26 and 24 respectively arrived in Melbourne, Australia on the 25th June 1861 on the ship, the Utopia. His birthplace was Kent County, and he states that his nationality is Welsh and English. He returned in 1865, and he first worked in the flax industry. When the flax industry collapsed, he went into threshing, he was the first in New Zealand to use the straw elevator and was the first to take a threshing machine into the Ellesmere district. Apparently, he was always very musical, and he played a flute solo at one of the earliest concerts in Christchurch. According to this report, Milner retired from the business in 1880. At the time of his death, he had seven children living, four sons and three daughters.
In 1882 Robert and Emma Thompson have their daughter Lillian Ethel aged 6 years old baptised at St John Deptford, Kent. Presumably the family must have travelled to the U.K. Lillian was born in Christchurch, New Zealand and her father is a music seller according to the baptism records.
In 1902 the Christchurch Star states ‘Mr Robert Thompson, of the firm Messrs Milner and Thompson, and his son, Mr R.H. Thompson, who contemplate a trip to England to see the Coronation, were last night presented by the firm’s employees with a writing desk and a pair of hairbrushes, as a mark of the esteem in which they are both held by the donors’.
Robert Thompson died on the 24th April 1915 at the age of 80. According to his obituary he was educated at one of the Harrow schools. After returning to the UK. he married in 1860.
Press 15th January 1966
Milner and Thompson were the largest music retailer in Christchurch, having also branches in Napier, Timaru and Ashburton. According to the Musical Notables website, ‘it was known for its innovative advertising and in 1881 produced a series of tokens initially advertising the business which became part of the general currency’.
The business commenced on the corner of Colombo and Chester Streets relocating to High St some years later. According to one report, these were the last tokens that were issued in New Zealand, and they were given out at the Colonial Exhibition in 1881. The firm also ran a booking office.
In 1883 the company was running from 206 High St. The building consisted of three floors with a cellar below. This building was elaborately decorated both internally and externally. One advertisement of the time stated that Milner and Thompson’s Music Depot as having ‘one of the most handsome fronts in the Colony’. From 1895 the company was located on the corner of Manchester Street and Bedford Row as the previous building was not large enough for the business.
The business was sold to Charles Begg and Co. in 1920.
References
www.nzmusicalnotables.com/notables
www.collections.musuemsvictoria.com.au
www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
www.canterburystories.nz