Pope Products Ltd. was an Australian manufacturer, based in Beverley, South Australia, best remembered for washing machines and refrigerators. The company was founded in 1935 by Sidney Barton Pope and his brother Harley Clifford Pope to manufacture irrigation equipment with an initial capitalisation of £15,000 in £1 shares.
History
Barton Pope and his brothers Raymond and Harley were born in Northam, Western Australia and moved to South Australia with their parents in 1913. Their father, previously a storekeeper, began manufacturing irrigation components at their 56? 66? Robert Street, West Croydon home. The boys were educated at Pulteney College and at age 14 Barton began working for his father. What started as a father and son operation grew into a small business registered in 1928 as "Pope Sprinklers Ltd." with shareholders Henry, Barton and Harley Pope, Lily Maria Pope and J. H. Richards. A new company, "Pope Products Ltd." was floated in 1934 to take over the assets of the old company of the same name which went into voluntary liquidation. Shareholders were the two Pope brothers, R.F.Smith, S.H.Carman and Winifred Laura Browne. Around 1935 the company moved its operations to Charles Road, Beverley. From 1939 an increasing output from the factory was directed towards the war effort; chiefly stamped and cast parts for munitions destined for the Commonwealth munitions factory at Maribyrnong, Victoria and for aircraft production at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation at Fisherman's Bend, Victoria. The factory underwent significant expansion in the immediatepost-war period. The company acquired premises in Finsbury The company was not noted for employee relations: in the early days they made extensive use of juniors 14-16 years of age as machine operators and menial labour to avoid paying award wages. Accidents were not uncommon. With growing union militancy and the Communist threat in the late 1940s, Pope Products became a model employer. It introduced a generous incentive scheme; in 1953 bonuses to its workers exceeded dividends paid to shareholders; the same year it instituted an employees' recreation hall and sponsored sporting activities for its workers and staff.
Products
The output of the various Pope Products factories included:
Lawn and garden sprinklers
Agricultural Sprinklers: Typhoon, Monsoon, Premier and Butterfly. With the Butterfly sprinkler also being extensively used in domestic applications.
"Ned Kelly" repeating cap gun, "Aussie" single-shot cap gun
In 1963 Pope Products and A.Simpson and Son amalgamated as Simpson-Pope Holdings Ltd. to manufacture washing machines and refrigerators. This company became Simpson Holdings in 1979 was absorbed by Email Ltd. in 1986, which in turn became part of the Electrolux manufacturing group in 2000.
Family
Raymond, Barton and Harley Pope were sons of Henry Pope and his wife Sarah Anne, née Nunn. The two younger sons were talented violinists; Harley in particular was described as "brilliant".
Barton Pope
Sidney Barton Pope married Lily Maria Howard on 19 March 1927; they divorced in 1942. He married again, to Ada Lillian McCarthy née Hawkins on 15 June 1944 shortly after her divorce. Barton's children included:
Barbara Barton Pope
John Brenton Pope
Ian Murray Pope
adopted daughter Susan Pope
Barton Pope was admitted to the SA Chamber of Manufactures in 1929 and was its president in 1949. He was knighted in 1959 "for services to commerce and industry". Their home for many years was Martin Ave, Fitzroy, South Australia. He owned a number of country properties: Yarindale station, 17 miles from Meningie and citrus orchards at Swanbury and Allawah, near Swan Reach He was a pioneer of the use of trace elements to restore fertility to ancient soils.
Harley Pope
Harley Clifford Pope married Alison Victoria Sterling on 23 April 1935. Their children were:
