Churchman's (originally W.A. & A.C. Churchman) was a British

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

based in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. The company was a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

John Player & Sons John Player & Sons, most often known simply as Player's, was a tobacco and cigarette manufacturer based in Nottingham, England. In 1901 the company merged with twelve other companies to become a branch of the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great B ...

of Imperial Tobacco Co. Churchman was notable for producing one million cigarettes a day.Days Gone By - Churchman’s made one million cigarettes a day in Ipswich
at the Ipswich Star, 23 Nov 2016 The company also released (like many other tobacco manufacturers at that time) a line of collectible cards about diverse topics, but mainly focused on sports.

History

Churchman's was founded by William Churchman in 1790. The original shop, which sold pipe tobacco, was located at

Hyde Park Corner Hyde Park Corner is between Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Mayfair in London, England. It primarily refers to a major road junction at the southeastern corner of Hyde Park, that was originally planned by architect Decimus Burton. The juncti ...

. In 1888 William Alfred (later Sir William) and Arthur Charles Churchman (later Lord Woodbridge and a director of the

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco p.l.c. (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products including electronic cigarettes. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, E ...

from 1904 to 1923), grandsons of the founder, succeeded their father, Henry, in the business. By 1890 the company also produced "white cigarettes", and six years later produced 20,000 cigarettes an hour. To counter the aggressive American invasion to the British cigarette market (started when W. Duke Sons & Co., and four of the largest American manufacturers merged to form the

American Tobacco Company The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter, Goodwin & Company, and Kinney Brothers. The company was one of the or ...

in 1890), W.D. & H.O. Wills,

Lambert & Butler Lambert & Butler is a former English tobacco manufacturing company, established in 1834 in Clerkenwell, Central London, which operated as a private business until 1901, when it merged with other UK manufacturers to form the Imperial Brands, Imperi ...

, Hignett Brothers (with their associated firms) and Stephen Mitchell & Son, with six other firms, joined forces to found the Imperial Tobacco Company, Ltd., in 1901. Churchman joined the recently formed company the following year. As the company expanded with increased sales, it opened a new facility at the junction of Portman Road and Princes Street. This factory would be extended during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1961 Churchman merged with

and Edwards, Ringer & Bigg, to become first "Churchman, Lambert & Ringer", then renamed simply "Churchman's" in 1965. By that year, manufacturing of cigars concentrated the factory's production, with more than 1 million cigars per day and 1,000 employees working at Churchman's. In 1972, the cigar business was integrated with

, with Churchman's becoming a

of it. Twenty years later, JP&S moved its operations to Bristol and Churchman closed.

Cigarette cards

Churchman produced several sets of

cigarette card Cigarette cards are trading cards issued by tobacco industry, tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and nicotine marketing, advertise cigarette brands. Between 1875 and the 1940s, cigarette companies often included collectible car ...

s to advertise its products, beginning in the first years of 20th century, most of them related with sports, mostly

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

sets. The first football set included

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

players and appeared in 1909, featuring illustrated ''footballers'' of both codes in their clubs' shirts. Other football sets were released in 1914, 1938 and 1939 but only related to association football.The History of Football Cigarette Cards
by John Simkin, on Spartacus Educational, September 1997 Other sports series released included

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

. Churchman also released a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

series in 1935, and an athletes series (featuring photographs of sportsmen of diverse disciplines) in 1939.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Churchman, W.A. and A.C. Tobacco companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1790 British companies disestablished in 1992