Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Wiszniewski, Julius Beresford
- Berry
- Old Berry, The
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Julius Beresford Wiszniewski, later known simply as Julius Beresford, was the son of Julius Bernhard Wiszniewski, an immigrant to England from Danzig (Gdansk).
He married Ethel Wood in June 1897 and had three children.
He was a sculler at Kensington Rowing Club and then joined Thames when he decided to concentrate on sweep-oar rowing. He won the Stewards' at Henley in 1909 and 1911 and Silver in the coxed four at the 1912 Olympics.
He was later Captain and de facto head coach.
With his future brother in law Richard Hicks (who married his sister Stella Beatrice Johanna Wiszniewski in 1896) Julius Bernard formed Beresford & Hicks in 1891. The company had a factory in Hemsworth Street, Hoxton, and a showroom in Curtain Road, Shoreditch. By 1918 they were known as ‘manufacturing upholstering and framemakers’ with a large showroom at 135-139 Curtain Road. The firm supplied bedroom suites to Heal’s, Tottenham Court Road; this comprised one particular design in 1905 and three in 1936. The firm was also known for making high quality upholstered goods and English reproduction furniture of all types and supplied furniture to the Royal Family in 1933. Production grew to include high quality modern boardroom furniture and it was granted a royal warrant in 1958, with Jack Beresford, the son of Julius, named as the grantee. In 1967 the Hemsworth Street factory was purchased by the Greater London Council and a new factory was built in Kings Lynn. About this time the firm merged with another old-established but ailing firm, Alfred Cox of Corsham Street, to produce mainly domestic furniture. The firm was acquired by Uniflex in 1972 but ceased to exist in 1995.