The first time I picked up a Gremlin lantern I was in for a very pleasant surprise.
Here was a British made 10” cold blast lantern, that’s superb quality construction far exceeded the ubiquitous Chalwyn Tropic, and yet at that point I had never heard of the brand.
In addition to the branding on the font, the lantern was marked on the crown JA 12159 HCCL {Broad Arrow} 1954
The broad arrow and the surviving traces of olive drab paint marked it as military issue. The date was obvious but the other markings were a mystery at the time.
I found an article on the Loveland Collection:
GREMLIN *Made in England* KEROSENE LANTERN - The Loveland Lantern Collection
That suggested a link with a British engineering firm Hudswell, Clarke and Co. Limited, which certainly fitted the HCCL initials but to this day, I have not yet determined what JA 12159 may stand for.
Further research online produced a Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudswell_Clarke
And an article on a Steam Locomotive preservation group’s website:
https://preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com/hudswell-clarke/
Those articles both suggested that Hudswell Clarke had diversified from its core railway engineering origins in the 1860s into military contracts during the Second World War.
The articles mentioned a wide inventory of products from mining equipment to airframes for the British atomic arsenal but, to my knowledge, the initials remain the only surviving evidence that links Gremlin lanterns to this venerable Leeds based engineering firm.
Intrigued by this lantern, I started to seek out other examples and quickly found a 12” lantern, comparable but, in my opinion, superior to the popular Chalwyn Far East.
As I collected more of these lanterns I noticed variations in the design that occurred over the relatively short period that they seem to have been manufactured. The earliest example I have seen in anyone’s collection is dated 1949 and the latest dated lantern in my collection is 1954. The latest dated example I have seen is 1955.
The earliest versions in my collection , which I will call Mk.I, dated between 1951 - 1952, are characterised by a longer simpler bail, a more rectangular crown loop, a plain unmarked filler cap and military / civil service markings on the font to the left of the filler cap.
I currently have two 10” and two 12” lanterns from this early phase. The 10” lanterns both bear the broad arrow and are dated 1951, one is marked JA 12159 the other 21/2778.
One of the 12” ones bears a G.R. Crown mark and is dated 1952 the other is unmarked suggesting that it may have been a civilian model.
The first design variation ( Mk.II ) has a shorter more curved bail but retains the rectangular crown loop.
I have three examples like this. The 12” one is undated and unmarked again. The two 10” models are both dated 1954 and the military / civil service markings have been embossed on the crown instead of the font. The 12” and one of the 10” lanterns have filler caps embossed with Gremlin Made in England on them but the other is plain.
The embossed filler cap remains a feature on all the lanterns after this version so I do not know if this plain cap is a replacement or may have been transitional.
The next variation ( Mk.III ) has Gremlin Made in England embossed on the crown and the crown loop is now rounded instead of rectangular.
Interestingly, these came to me with globes embossed with a Bat trade mark and Made in England written above. I assumed the first was an after market replacement but when the second arrived, just the same, it gave me pause for thought.
The Bat logo turns up on a few different globes but many are German and most of them are larger than this one.
This one is clearly marked “Made in England” and apparently the English Bat trade mark was held by a bottle making company in Leeds, Lax & Shaw, now part of Allied Glass, that made the larger Bat style globes, predominantly for East Africa. They also made the embossed Chalwyn torch-branded globes.
Was there a link between these two Leeds based companies more than just geographic coincidence I wonder ?
The final variation I have seen ( Mk.IV ) bears a distinctive G logo on either side the filler cap. This G logo also appears along with the brand “Gremlin” on an embossed globe.
I have six examples. Two 12” and four 10”. None of them bear dates, military or civil service markings and one of the 12” lanterns came with a plain globe, I assume that was a replacement.
Given their close proximity to the Hudswell Clarke factory, I think it is highly likely that Lax & Shaw also supplied the embossed Gremlin globes that made an appearance on these later lanterns.
I spotted a poor condition lantern on eBay bearing the late Mk.IV features such as the G logo on the font and the rounded crown loop but crucially it was military marked on the crown with a 1955 date which shows that these features were in place by that time.
The earliest dated example I have seen was from an Australian collection and was dated 1949 on an applied button under the font.
As a final note, I became aware of a larger 14” version of these lanterns from an Australian collector. Some time later, I found one in the UK but the crown had been clumsily replaced with the crown from an old Gael lantern.
On removal I discovered that one of the crown supports had completely rusted away and the others had been bent over to stick the replacement onto.
I had in my spares box a crown plate from a large Chalwyn lantern that looked like a better fit so I planished out the Chalwyn branding, rebuilt / replaced the crown support and restored the lantern somewhat to its original appearance.
It has an embossed globe but otherwise has features that are consistent with a Mk.II lantern. As such, I cannot be sure where this fits into the design chronology, but I suspect it is later rather than earlier.
I am grateful to Tony Press and Jörg Wekenmann for copies of some catalogue pages and adverts that added depth to my research. These were from the C.J Thomas catalogues in Australia, which suggests that was an important market.
The two Adverts posted by Jörg Wekenmann indicate that both the 10” and 12” lanterns were given the model name P35
The 1950 Catalogue pages posted by Tony Press used the alternative designations HC252 12-inch and HC275 10-inch which I suspect were proprietary supplier codes, with HC standing for Hudswell Clarke.
