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Les origines (1880-1895)

Le cinématographe (1896-1906)

Et après... (1907->1936)

T. A. Welsh
" Tommy " Welsh, Chairman of Welsh Pearson and Co., Ltd., and one of the staunchest champions of British films, has been in the business twenty-eight years. He was with the Gaumont Company in the days when fifty-foot reels of fire brigades and crying babies were sold over the counter at a shilling a foot ; the days when the " animated picture " was a novelty side show at travelling fairs ; when renters, producers, and studios were unheard of.
Among his many recollections is that of an elderly lady from a travelling fair who came into the shop at closing time one evening, purchased a cinematograph " machine," and paid for it in threepenny bits ! He calls to mind, too, the introduction of the first " super " film—a fifty-foot shot of the departure of the Gordon Highlanders from Cairo prior to the battle of Omdurman-which an ingenious showman lengthened to a " feature " by the simple process of stringing several copies together !
It was T. A. Welsh who, as general manager of the Gaumont Company, supervised the building of the Shepherd's Bush Studio. In 1915, through the introduction of Peggy Hyland, he secured the services of George Pearson as Director and, in collaboration, the two men wrote and produced a series of detective " thrillers," which proved a considerable success.
During the war he went to France to organise the distribution of official British war films on a large scale.
Realising the importance of the screen play in propaganda, he acquired with his own money the cinema rights of Bairnsfather's " The Better 'Ole," converted the Welsh-Pearson partnership into a limited company, and produced the first—and, incidentally, one of the most popular—of the many comedy-dramas dealing with the War.
The subsequent progress of Welsh Pearson and Co. is well known to all who have studied the history of British film production.
" Tommy " Welsh is by nature a fighter. He is at his best when faced by difficulties, and he enjoys nothing better than conflict of opinions. He says what he thinks—but he always thinks before he says. His forceful arguments in favour of the establishment of a National Studio, and his recent fearless opposition to certain clauses in the Quota provisions of the Films Bill, will be fresh in the minds of many.
Perhaps his most outstanding qualities, however, are his penetrating vision and his almost boyish enthusiasm. In a phrase, T. A. Welsh is a man who sees through things—and sees things through.The Bioscope, samedi 18 juin 1927, p. 695.

Hearty congratulations, in which I am sure, my many readers will join, to muy friend, Mr. T. A. Welsh, of the Gaumont Company, who was married to Miss Ethel Yates on the 30th ult., at St. Michael's, Stoke Newington. The happy pair have been spending their honeymoon in the Isle of Wight.

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Kinematograph Weekly, jeudi 19 octobre 1911, p. 5.

Mr. T. A. Welsh, of the Gaumont Company, Limited, informs us that while still maintaining the supply of their own " Chronos," their machine shops in Paris are busily engaged, in addition, in turning out shells to the tune of many thousands a week. Mr. Welsh also makes the interesting announcement that he has offered to the Munitions Department the brand new factory which Messrs. Gaumont have just completed at Shepherd's Bush. A notice of the company's latest topical " With the Allied Fleets in the Dardanelles " will be found in the " Pick of the Programmes " pages.

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The Bioscop, jeudi 1^er juillet 1915, p 8.

 

In 1918 Pearson and T. A. Welsh formed Welsh Pearson, Ltd., with £6,000 capital; the chairman was Alderman Heron, eidotr of the KINE. Their first film was "The Better 'Ole'" the following year a studio at Craven Park, Willesden, was acquired. An 18-year-old girl was given a small part as a Cockney skivvy. She was Betty Balfour, for a number of years their leading lady, for whom the "Squibs" series was written.Kinematograph Weekly, 31 mai 1951, p. 29.

 

In 1918 T. A. Welsh (also from Gaumont) and I formed a new and very modest company of our own-Welsh-Pearson, and hired a third of the studio floor at Twickenham, to make a film based on Bairnsfather's music hall sketch, The Better 'Ole. In the middle of the studio Edward Collins was making God and the Man, and at the far end Meyrick Milton was directing Red Pottage. Those were the silent days; simultaneous work was quite a common procedure, though on occasions there were awkward moments calling for mutual concessions. George Pearson, "My life in the film jungle", Amateur Cine World, vol. 15, nº 9, janvier 1952, p. 756

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