So here we have Bert Trautmann, representing "Trout". And there are quite a few footballers whose names, if skewed, could be used as Aquatic Animals - including several with the surname Ray (for stingray), plus South African Mark Fish, Geoffrey Salmons (of Chesterfield, Leicester City, Sheffield United and Stoke City), and Peter Murray Haddock (of Newcastle United, Burnley and Leeds United).
If you said this card was issued by John G. Barker (Ireland) Ltd., with bubble gum, congratulations, you were not too far off, as they also circulated it.
Our card was the version by Mitcham Foods though, and their tale has not yet been told. So therefore this becomes the Mitcham Foods home page, from which you will one day be able to link in and out and view examples of all the different sets.
The name may sound like the immortalization of a surname, but it was founded by Mr. Delarageaz, who came to England after the First World War, and started a company on a wholesale basis, exporting goods to France and to their colonies in North Africa.
He then bought a company in France, who specialised in making what we would call margarine, but solely for business like restaurants and cafes. He thought that the product could be sold to the general public, but had no means to make it, so he bought into a small business in Mitcham, right beside the Common, which was already making cheese and other dairy products.
This new company grew so successful that it was taken over by Unilever in 1928, and they wanted him too, but he was not so happy there. They realised this early on, and had tied him in to a very odd contract that meant he was not able to make a rival product for at least five years. In those five years, he waited, and put out feelers, and refined his product, to make it smoother and better tasting. Then, when the time was up he left, though he had nowhere to make his wonderful new product - until he realised that when Unilever bought him out they had not wanted the old factory, and so he was not only able to take that over, but to make it into the most modern premises he could. This took another five years, and it was opened in 1938.
This sounds like a great time to build a factory, in many ways, with the outbreak of war fast approaching, and rationing on everyone`s minds. But it also meant that most of the male staff went off to war, and he had to convince their wives and girlfriends to come work for him as well as retrain them on the production and packaging lines. Then, in 1941, the lovely new factory was completely demolished by a bomb.
I am not sure if this is the same incident, of April the 16th, 1941, when fifteen Home Guard volunteers were killed by a parachute mine that fell on the common, but I do now know that they were on duty at Towers Creameries when they were killed, and though in the early 1940s they were a separate entity, they are shown on a map of the 1950s as being one of the two blocks that make up the Mitcham Foods complex.
In the early 1960s, there were more huge changes, for Mitcham Foods merged with George Lewis Limited, Minsterley Creameries Ltd, Auguste Pellerin Ltd, and Express Dairy Products Ltd to make Express Dairy Foods.
Sadly, by the mid 1960s, the margarine arm was failling, priced out of business by one of their rivals, who held the upper hand on getting supplies of cheap materials. This meant that the factory in Mitcham, which made the margarine, was closed. Though Kraft Foods took over the Mitcham brand, and ensured that those survived, a lot of the memories of the old factory were lost.
To their cards, at last!
In our original British Trade Index part II, the entire entry reads :
MITCHAM Foods Ltd., Mitcham
Cards issued 1957-60
- AIRCRAFT OF TODAY. Sm. 63 x 34. Nd. (25). ... MKE-1
Back (a) with
(b) without "Top Flight Sweet Cigarettes" above firm`s name- AQUARIUM FISH. Sm. 65 x 35. Nd. See D.216 ... MKE-2
1. 1st Series (25)
2. 2nd Series (25)- BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. Sm. 67 x 35. Nd. (50) MKE-3
Issued in joined pairs, Album issued ...- FOOTBALLERS. Sm. 66 x 35. Black. Nd. (25) See D.288 MKE-4
- MARS ADVENTURE. Sm. 64 x 34. Nd. (50) See D.315 MKE-5
- MOTOR RACING. Sm. 66 x 30. Black. Nd. (28) MKE-6
All the "D" codes mean that is that there are duplicate versions of these sets, issued with other companies and commodities - these being
- D.216 - Aquarium Fish - also by Brookfield Sweets (1959), Pukka Tea (1961), and in an anonymous version
- D.288 - Footballers - also by Barker`s Bubblegum (in the same year as ours, 1956)
- D.315 - Mars Adventure - also in an anonymous format
Most curious of all is the fact that despite that the first set listed under their issues mentions "Top Flight", it does not manage to link to another set listed by them in the same British Trade Index part two, and which we have already mentioned on our website, in our newsletter for the 23rd of February, 2024, you can see it by scrolling down to Friday the 29th.
It is not until our updated British Trade Index that that the entry reads :
MITCHAM Foods Ltd., Mitcham
Issued 1956-60. Includes brand issue "Top Flight"
- AIRCRAFT OF TODAY. 1956. 63 x 34. B&W. Nd. (25). . MIT-030
Back (a) with
(b) without "Top Flight Sweet Cigarettes" above firm`s name- AQUARIUM FISH. 1956. 65 x 35. Nd. See HX-87 ... MIT-040
1. 1st Series (25)
2. 2nd Series, Nd. 26-50 (25)- BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 1959. 67 x 35. MIT-050
Issued in joined pairs. Nd. (50), Album issued ...- FOOTBALLERS. 1956-7. 66 x 35. Black. Nd. (25) See HX-54 ... MIT- 070
- MARS ADVENTURE. 1955. 64 x 34. Nd. (50) See HX-138... MIT-080
- MOTOR RACING. 1957. 66 x 30. Black. Nd. (25) MIT-100
- TOP FLIGHT STARS. 65 x 34. Sport subjects. Nd. (25). MIT-110
Brand issue. `Top Flight`