William Hinds
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William Hinds, born in 1887, was one of the two founders of Hammer Film Productions, along with Enrique Carreras. He was a jeweller from London who, with his brother Frank, owned and ran Hinds Jewellers.
William (Will) and Frank had different business priorities and shortly after the First World War the brothers divided the business in two.
Both were successful. Frank's part grew into the national jeweller F. Hinds, which has over 100 branches across England & Wales and is still owned and managed by the Hinds family.
Will continued to expand his business until he owned not only 25 jeweller's shops but had also diversified into other types of retail, including operating barbers above some of the jewellery shops.
He became involved in theatre, both through owning a number of seaside theatres, for example the West Cliff Theatre in Clacton, and also by performing as a comedian, although it is said that the latter was not his greatest strength!
He also ran summer concert parties in conjunction with Jack Payne, the famous bandleader, and led a troupe called "Will Hammer's Players", taking his stage name of Hammer from Hammersmith, where he lived.
This led to him diversifying into the increasingly popular world of film. When he started in films he used the name by which he was known in this industry as the name of his new company - Hammer Productions, the studio which was to become famous across the globe for horror films.
Will's oldest son William (Bill) continued to run the jewellery shops for many years. These were sold in the 1960s but Bill continued as a jeweller. His widow eventually sold his remaining shop in Worthing, Sussex to the other half of the family, reuniting the jewellery business. It is now a branch of F. Hinds.
His second son Anthony Hinds (Tony) became famous as one of the main players in the history of Hammer Film Productions.
A lifelong interest of William Hinds was cycling. He was a well-know amateur cyclist and owned a number of cycle shops. He eventually met his death while riding his bicycle near his Leatherhead home in 1957, a year after the centenary of the family jewellery business.
[edit] External links
| Hammer Films crew & personnel |
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| Jack Asher (cinematographer) | Roy Ashton (make-up artist) | Don Banks (composer) | James Bernard (composer) | Michael Carreras (producer) | Arthur Grant (cinematographer) | Anthony Hinds (producer, writer) | William Hinds (founder, producer) | Phil Leakey (makeup artist) | Eddie Powell (stuntman) | Michael Reed (cinematographer) | Bernard Robinson (designer) | Jimmy Sangster (writer, director) |
