John Compton (20 June 1865 - 6 April 1957), born in Newton Burgoland, Leicestershire,[1] was a pipe organ builder. His business based in Nottingham and London flourished between 1902 and 1965.[2]
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John Compton was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and then studied as an apprentice with Halmshaw & Sons in Birmingham. In 1898 he joined Brindley and Foster in Sheffield.[1] Then he joined Charles Lloyd in Nottingham.
He first set up a business in 1902 in Nottingham with James Frederick Musson, as Musson & Compton; the partnership dissolved in 1904. In 1919, the business moved to workshops at Turnham Green Terrace, Chiswick, London, which had been vacated by August Gern. He built a factory in Willesden, London in 1930.
Compton worked primarily on electric-action pipe organs and electronic organs. Compton's first electronic instrument was the Melotone (a solo voice added to theatre organs)[3][4]; next came the Theatrone. The Electrone, an electrostatic tonewheel instrument introduced in 1938, evolved out of research by Leslie Bourn, an association begun in the 1920s.[1]
On 13 June 1940 Compton was arrested on the island of Capri, where he had been on holiday. He was interned as an enemy alien but spent much of his time restoring pipe organs.
Compton died in 1957. The business was wound up around 1965. The pipe organ department was sold to Rushworth and Dreaper; the electronic department became Makin Organs.[1]
Compton cinema organs, built by the John Compton Organ Company of Acton, were the most prevalent of theatre organs in the UK; 261 were installed in cinemas and theatres in the British Isles. Comptons made many fine church and concert organs as well. Their cinema organs employed state of the art technology and engineering and many are still in existence today. One of the most notable is the large 5 manual example at the Odeon Cinema Leicester Square in central London.
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