Waddingtons
| Industry | Board & Card Games |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Hasbro |
| Founded | 19th Century (as a printing firm) 1922 (gaming company) |
| Defunct | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Leeds & London |
| Products |
Monopoly Cluedo Waddingtons Christmas Jigsaws Playing cards |
Waddingtons was a publisher of card and board games in the United Kingdom. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and the thespian Wilson Barrett, under the name Waddingtons Limited. The name was changed to Waddington's House of Games, then in 1905 John Waddington Limited, then Waddington Games, and finally just Waddingtons.
The company was established as a printing business, and at first 'practically all its business related to the theatre'. It entered into game production in 1922, due to a boom in demand for playing cards around World War I. Waddingtons subsequently sold both original games (especially tie-ins for UK television programmes) and games licensed from other publishers.
Waddingtons became the UK publisher of Parker Brothers' Monopoly, while Parker licensed Waddingtons' Cluedo. In 1941, the British Secret Service (MI9) had the company create a special edition of Monopoly for World War II prisoners of war held by the Germans. Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by the International Red Cross.
Victor Watson served as its chairman from 1977 to 1993. The company was bought by Hasbro in 1994.
Beginning in 1994, Christmas-themed jigsaw puzzles were released annually until 2007, a total of thirteen puzzles. The first twelve in the series depicted a scene from a Victorian-era Christmas. The final puzzle depicted a scene from the fairy tale Cinderella. The small number of puzzles, combined with the fact that they were all limited editions, has made these puzzles highly collectable. Further jigsaws have been produced since 2010, by a new company using the same brand name.
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