Reproduced from Vintage20Mil

Greenwood & Ball

John Greenwood of Wellington, Shropshire began making 40mm figures before the War but in the 1940s changed over to working in 20mm scale. These figures were sand-cast, individually animated and were painted by Katherine Ball (hence the later company name of Greenwood and Ball). They were collector's items and as George Gush notes in 'A Guide To Wargaming', too expensive for the wargamer. A Wall Models catalogue from the late-1960s offers foot figures at 30 shillings (£1.50) a staggeringly high sum by the standards of the day.

Greenwood was also famous for his dioramas, a number of which were displayed in the United Services Museum in Pall Mall, London and proved an inspiration to many gamers and designers including Jack Alexander.
In 1959 Greenwood launched a cheaper range of figures, possibly inspired by Airfix's new output or Britain's Lilliput range (both of which had first appeared the year before). According to Alexander these figures were small, measuring 20mm from the soles of the feet to the top of the headgear. Greenwood did not cast on straps or webbing reasoning that these would stand out from the figure too far to be in scale. "He said" Jack explains, "that if you painted them on the paint would be the right thickness". The cavalry figures featured a novel addition. They had strips of wire soldered to the bottoms of their boots so that they would stand up when dismounted.

According to Don Featherstone the 20mm range included ACW, WWI and Naval figures while a one-inch range offered Napoleonic staff officers and Normans circa 1066.

John Greenwood died in 1971 and Bill Pearce of The Garrison in Harrow, a friend of Greenwood and long-time distributor of his figures, took over the range. The Garrison (which then traded as A&P Militaria) had an impressive roster that would at various times include Jacklex, Lassett, Sanderson, Cameo and Olive. The smaller Greenwood figures seem to have been dropped in favour of the new, John Braithwaite-designed Garrison 20mm range at some point during the 1970s.

Veteran wargamer Charles Wesencraft recalls the moment that designer John Braithwaite unveiled his first figures at the opening National Wargames Convention hosted by Don Featherstone in Southampton in 1966. "We all had our plastics which was about all you could get back then and John brought out this box and started unwrapping all these wonderful little Greeks".

John Braithwaite lived on Teesside where he had bought two adjoining houses, using one as his workshop. He produced some of the early Minifigs ancient range - mainly Greeks - for Neville Dickinson.

The Garrison range first appeared around 1969. These original ranges of Ancients were 'true' 25mm - that is to say 25mm from sole of shoe to top of head. "Initially rather flattish, though attractive" is George GushÕs later verdict. Scale Models was more complimentary noting in 1970 that the figures were "very well detailed and nicely proportioned".

Though the range concentrated on Ancients it gradually expanded to cover Napoleonic subjects too.

Early Garrison figures came on bases that had striations on the top to suggest grass. The code number is scratched on the bottom. Later figures had 'Garrison. Made in England' and the code number either printed on the bottom of the base in copperplate script or heavily embossed upon it. The figures are flat in the style of early Hinton Hunt or Les Higgins' 20mm, but they are nicely proportioned with a 'sketchy' quality that gives some, the Greeks especially, a passing resemblance to the drawings of Ronald Searle.

Garrison discontinued the 20mm range in the summer of 1973 and a new redesigned range by Braithwaite replaced it. These figures are a couple of millimetres taller and considerably chunkier.

Bill Pearce closed down his Garrison shop in Northolt Road, South Harrow in 1971 (though Northern Garrison in Knaresborough continued to operate under the aegis of Alex Hardie). Shortly afterwards Greenwood and Ball emerged as the name for a company that produced the Garrison range of 20mm figures along with the other Pearce-owned ranges. Initially based in Harrow the firm eventually re-located to BraithwaiteÕs native North-East, setting up in Thornaby and later Stockton-on-Tees.

A lifelong smoker Braithwaite succumbed to lung cancer in the late-1970s. When Bill Pearce himself died in 1981 Greenwood and Ball's 25mm range was taken over by Steve Thompson of SKT in Twyford who had been helping run the company for some while. The masters eventually passed via Paisley Miniatures to Amazon Miniatures. The original 'small' Romans, Vikings and Greeks should be available soon through Amazon who also stock the bigger versions that replaced them.

Garrison

Veteran wargamer Charles Wesencraft recalls the moment that designer John Braithwaite unveiled the first ever Garrison figures at the opening National Wargames Convention hosted by Don Featherstone in Southampton in 1966. “We all had our plastics which was about all you could get back then and John brought out this box and started unwrapping all these wonderful little Greeks”. These original ranges (“initially rather flattish, though attractive” is George Gush’s later verdict) of Ancients and Napoleonics were 20mm (or at least “true” 25mm – that is to say 25mm from sole of shoe to top of head). Braithwaite lived on Teesside where he had bought two adjoining houses, using one as his workshop. A lifelong smoker he succumbed to lung cancer in the early-1980s. Originally sold through the Southern and Northern Garrison shops, 20mm Romans and Vikings should be available soon through Amazon Miniatures who also stock the 25mm versions which replaced the earlier figures in the mid-1970s.

Rose Miniatures

Rose Miniatures of south-east London was best known for its extensive range of 54mm figures, but also produced a small range of 20/25mm figures, designed by owner Russell Gammage. Background information on Gammage is hard to find ("Russell was always elusive" someone who knew him has told us). It appears that he studied sculpture, possibly at Slade.

Gammage designed his first figures, a set commemorating the Coronation, for Graham Farrish in 1953. He set up his own company a few years later. It was named in honour of his wife, Rose. Rose Miniatures traded from various Gammage homes in Plumstead and Charlton and figures were also sold through the shop Regimental in Berkeley Street W1.

Though the 20mm range was launched around 1963-4, Gammage had produced at least two "one inch" wargames figures as far back as 1957, making him arguably the first British maker of gaming miniatures. The subjects were a Waterloo British Infantryman (WG1) and a French Napoleonic Guard (WG2). The figures cost 9d each. We do not know whether these figures were added to or included in the later range, but the figure coding and size suggest that in the latter case the answer is no.

In 1965 the Rose 20mm range included Napoleonics (French, British and Austrians) and ACW subjects. Infantry, cavalry and artillery were produced for both periods. Charles Grant writes of them in his book The Wargame, "A very high standard in design and finish, these figures deserve to be better known than they are".

In 1966 WW1 British infantry and Waterloo British artillerymen were added.

In 1973 a small Zulu War range was launched. There were five British infantry and four Zulus, the latter described by Ian Knight, in an article on Zulu figures that appeared in a c1980 issue of The Courier, as "a bit flat".

Both Grant and Knight describe the Rose figures as 20mm and though the company itself tended to designate them as 25mm castings. Some confusion may result from the figures having "grown" over the years. Certainly George Gush in A Guide To Wargaming notes of Rose "early figures are 20mm". A photograph in Garratt's Collecting Model Soldiers shows two examples which are the same height as the Hinton Hunt figures they are grouped amongst.

The infantry figures are mounted on round bases roughly 1.5cms in diameter. The name Rose and the serial number are clearly stamped on the underside.

Around 1990 Russell Gammage sold his business and retired, according to rumour, to the South of France. Jim Robinson of Littlehampton (see also Les Higgins article) bought the 54mm figures but says that the smaller figures went to Anders Lindstrom of Sweden, who also markets the Tradition 25mm and 30mm figures and Edward Suren's 33mm ranges. Our enquiries in that direction are pending.

To add a touch of Gammage-style mystery, Steve Thompson of SKT in Twyford, at that time makers of the Garrison (Greenwood & Ball) range obtained the moulds for some smaller Rose figures (30mm as well as the 20/25mm) in the early 1990s "from a bloke near Southampton". The Napoleonic and Zulu War 20/25mm figures were not included amongst the masters he purchased. These did though include the ACW range and a range of Ancients - Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks and Persians. We have been able to find no reference to these Ancient figures in any catalogue, magazine or book. It seems probable that the masters were made but never put into production, or that they were produced very late on in the company's history.

SKT sold out to Paisley Miniatures towards the end of the decade and eighteen months later Paisley in turn sold out to Amazon Miniatures.  Amazon are currently in the process of cataloguing what they have bought. Owner Paul Ashton says that Amazon is supposed to have everything that SKT produced.

At the time of writing (January 2002) only the Rose 30mm Napoleonic moulds have been located. However, recent purchase of samples from Amazon's New Prestige range reveals them to be the mysterious Rose ancients (easily identifiable because they have the Rose name stamped on their bases). They are wonderful, slender figures, which, judging from their slightly inactive poses, were probably aimed more at the collector than the wargamer.

Greenwood & Ball, Garrison & Rose Miniatures history from Vintage20Mil