A W Chick

Before entering the trade, A W Chick was doing the rounds in the Midlands as a professional billiard player of some note, being the professional champion of Birmingham in 1896.

He was originally from London, but moved to Chard, Somerset, at an early age, and then to Birmingham in 1885.

Chick was also active in developing new innovations, having registered at least one patent in 1902; it is quite possible that a cue was produced which predates the founding of the company.

The photo shows Arthur in 1952 at the age of 87, with his son Frank, who was running the business at that time.

A W Chick Limited

Chick had a varied career before building up his business supplying and repairing billiard tables. He was at one time regarded as the professional billiard champion of Birmingham, and later became manager/licensee of several hotels in the locality before opening his first billiard hall at the Union Passage, Birmingham, in 1914. To operate the billiard hall business he registered a company, ‘Arthur W Chick Ltd’.

Arthur Chick had three children, none of whom had married, so these were the only heirs to the business he founded. His eldest son had died in 1939, and when Arthur passed away in 1952 aged 87, the business was inherited by his second son, Frank. However, Frank only survived his father by three years, and when he died in 1955, Arthur’s daughter, Beatrice then became the sole heir. She was less enthusiastic about running a billiard table repair company than her brothers, and the company stopped trading in 1958. It was ultimately wound up in voluntary liquidation in 1961.

Peter Ainsworth