Digby

Thomas J. Digby Illuminating Engineering Co

Address: 12 Gerrard Street, London, W1. Telephone: Gerrard 0936-7

(Adapted from TABS, Vol.22 Issue 1, 1964)
Lighting manufacturing and hire company run by Thomas J Digby, who provided electrical apparatus (lighting equipment) as well as electrical staff to many of the theatres around the West End. The bulk of his business at the start of the 20th Century was supplying hand-fed arc lighting equipment, requiring a large staff to keep running. As many as forty men would not be unusual for a show, and he had a strict set of rules about how they could be used. However, at least two venues in the West End (The Duke of York's and the Strand) did not use Digby, as the in-house electricians Arthur Earnshaw and Phillip Sheridan (who later formed Strand Electric, which became Strand Lighting) did not use Digby, and did their own electrical work and found their own staff.

Dates:

1899 - Digby had his first patent (for the horizontal movement of an arc electrode).

1901: Thomas J Digby provides electrical effects to the production of Scrooge at the Vaudeville Theatre which is part of a Royal Command Performance at Sandringham.

1906 December: Thomas J Digby has provided lighting to some "25 of London's playhouses" according to a Dublin newspaper.

1923: The Era, 8th Feb 1923 states that "Thomas Digby are supplying the special lighting plant" for The Magical Revue of Shakespeare.

1930 February: Thomas J Digby appeared at the British Industries Fair (Bioscope, 26 Feb 1930)

DATE / INFORMATION TO BE CONFIRMED: His company was bought in the late 1920s by Imperial Lighting, who in turn became part of the Strand Electric group in 1949.

Links:

Graces Guide

Thanks to Mike Hall for additional information..