LIFE

1911 CENSUS: 5 Apr 1911, Drinagh, Errislannan, Galway, IRELAND:
- William Spencer PURSER (25y) wireless telegraphist
- Sarah Elizabeth PURSER (26y)

William S. PURSER (36y/3m)
SS "AQUITANIA"
dep.: .. Nov 1921, Southampton, ENGLAND
arr.: 11 Nov 1921, New York, USA
Home address: London



W. S. PURSER (39y) manager
SS "MAURETANIA"
dep.: 23 May 1925, Southampton, ENGLAND
arr.: 29 May 1925, New York, USA
Home address: Mrs. W. S. Purser, 11 Bourne Hill, London N.


At The Gramophone Conference (1938) W. S. Purser of EMI spoke of Development in Wax Recording (from: The Musical Times).


Columbia moved to the 'Columbia Building' (later called Columbia House) from City Road about the beginning of 1913. The new premises were fitted up with showrooms, sales and clerical offices, stock rooms, and recording facilities—including a band testing-room, recording laboratory and artistes' reception room. (fn. 99) At this time the British branch of Columbia was one of the two leading companies in the United Kingdom manufacturing and selling gramophone players and records, the other being the Gramophone Co. Ltd (His Master's Voice). Columbia came to lead the field in orchestral recordings, signing up (Sir) Thomas Beecham and Sir Henry Wood in 1915. In the 1920s W. S. Purser, Columbia's chief engineer, made the first electrical recordings in this country in his fourth-floor workshop at Clerkenwell, developing a microphone for recording from the regular acoustic recording sessions in the studio above. (fn. 100)
In 1926-1928 Columbia expanded its Clerkenwell Road premises, taking over Nos 96 and 98-100, so as to accommodate newly acquired subsidiaries including the Johnson Talking Machine Co. and Parlophone records. The showroom in Illustration 582 may have been fitted up at this time. (fn. 101) In 1931, with the industry suffering from the Depression, Columbia and HMV merged to form Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI). (fn. 102) The Clerkenwell Road studio proved too small and noisy for electrical recording, and by the early 1930s EMI recording was concentrated at Abbey Road.
(citation from: 'Clerkenwell Road', in Survey of London: Volume 46, South and East Clerkenwell, ed. Philip Temple (London, 2008), pp. 385-406 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol46/pp385-406 [accessed 8 December 2015]).