Gale & Polden

Gale and Polden was a British printer and publisher. Founded in Brompton, near Chatham, Kent in 1868, the business subsequently moved to Aldershot, where they were based until closure in November 1981 after the company had been bought by media mogul Robert Maxwell.

The firm of Gale and Polden was founded near Brompton Barracks at Chatham, James Gale opening his bookshop there at No 1 High Street, Old Brompton in 1868. Soon Gale acquired his first printing press, which he set up in a wooden shed in the garden at the rear of his house. Through his contacts with the Headquarters of the Chatham Military District Gale obtained a printing contract for the printing of the Garrison Directory.

In 1873 Gale printed and published his first book, Campaign of 1870–1: The Operations of the Corps of General V. Werder by Ludwig Lohlein, late Captain 1st Baden Bodyguard Grenadier Regiment. At this time Gale's printing works had three hand presses and only enough metal type to print sixteen pages at a time. Gale's staff was made up of three compositors, a bookbinder, a die stamper and three boys. His wife managed the shop's book and stationery sales, assisted by one of the boys.

On 29 September 1875 James Gale took on his first apprentice, William T Nash, aged fourteen. Nash went on to work for the Company for sixty-eight years, rising to be Composing Room Overseer, a post he held for nearly forty years until 1943 when he died aged 82. In 1875 Nash was soon joined by Thomas Ernest Polden, aged 16. By 1880 the bookselling side of Gale's business was very successful, and Gale publicised it by announcing that "A selection of several hundreds of most modern and popular books will always be found in stock and, having made arrangements for receiving parcels from the principal London Houses daily, the book that should not happen to be in stock could be obtained immediately".

Many of these developments were due to T. Ernest Polden, who had progressed from serving in the bookshop into working in the printing works where he gained an extensive knowledge of different printing processes. Polden went out from Chatham to the garrisons or dockyards at Gravesend, Dover, Canterbury and further afield, publicising the name Gale and Polden to the British Army and Navy. At that time most official military forms were written out in longhand by orderlies, and Polden saw an opportunity to extend the firm's business by printing standardised forms. His scheme resulted in large orders for the forms being placed.

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