Leslie William Llewellyn ALSTON C.B.E. [6032]

  General Notes:

Essex Record Office
Category Parish Records
WALTON-LE-SOKEN, ALL SAINTS
Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials
Item Marriage register
Date1914-1924
Scope and Content Contains, pasted in: forms recording marriages solemnized in Walton parish church after performance of civil marriage ceremonies, issued in respect of Leslie William Llewellyn ALSTON and Eliza Scrivener, 2 April 1927

In 1921 Percy Alston's son Leslie started an apprenticeship with his father and then completed this at Fisher Trade Woodworking in London's East End. In 1937 Leslie started his own manufacturing business at a redundant coconut matting factory in Long Melford. The business was set up with a L6,000 bank loan. Leslie's brother Roy joined him there to help run the new venture.
The company later adopted the trade mark Albro as an abbreviation of Alston brothers, this continued into the 1980's. During the Second World War, the factory in Long Melford switched its production to 'utility' bedroom and dining furniture. Extra work was also taken on to manufacture coffins for the war effort.
Later in the war, the Long Melford factory was burnt out and new premises were sought in Ipswich. Initially production was resumed within Wrinch's factory in Nacton Road, Ipswich. Land was also purchased adjacent to Wrinch's and a factory was built by joining war surplus Nissen huts together to form a linear building and a continuous production line was created within it. This temporary structure survived until 1971 when new building was errected over the old huts ensuring that not an hour of production was lost. The cabinet business has remained at this site to this day.
During this time a new Head Office has been built and a programme of continuous investment in machinery maintained. It has manufactured almost exclusively bedroom furniture during this period.In the 1950's and 60's this was centered on suites of bedroom furniture of veneered teak , walnut and mahogany finish (a suite comprised a ladies wardrobe , a gents wardrobe and a dressing table).
The 1970's saw the introduction of modular bedroom furniture ranges in veneered and painted finishes.In more recent years the company has become a market leader in the production of traditional and contemporary bedroom ranges of laminate and painted finish. Leslie Alston remained in charge of this business until his death in 1976 at which point his oldest son Rex (John) took over as Managing Director with Leslie's brother Percy (Roy) as Chairman. In 1979 Alan, Leslie's other son became Chairman and Managing Director assisted by his bother Rex and with their cousin Noel (Percy's son) as Sales Director.

1939 Register
9 Old Market Place , Sudbury M.B., Suffolk, England
Leslie W (L) Alston 02 Jun 1904 married Cabinet Maker.
Lilah E (Eliza) Alston 31 Aug 1898 Married Unpaid Domestic Duties.

Obituary.
Industry Mourns Leslie Alston.
Leslie Alston, CBE, one of the industry's best known and liked, and hardest working figures, died last weekend. He was 72 and had not been in the best of health for some time.
Since his earliest days in the industry, with the foundation in 1937 of what has now become the Alston Group of Companies based in Ipswich, Mr Alston has been a leading figure in almost every aspect of the industry.
He was a past president of BFM (he served in this office from 1965 - 1968), of UEA and of the LFM. He was a former director of the Training Board and of FDC, the predecessor of the FIRA. He was a past president of the FTBA and a leading figure in the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers (only last week ill-health forced him to retire from the post of Junior Warden).
His membership of all these organisations was far from a nominal one he was a tireless worker, not only within his own very substantial group of companies, but also within the aspects of the trade and its organisation and charities.
Last year he was awarded the CBE for his services and received the award from the Queen herself.
Mr Alston leaves a widow Eliza and two sons Alan and Rex both of whom are directors of the Alston Group.
The funeral is to be held at 2:30 pm next Monday (March 22nd at St Gregory's Church Sudbury, Suffolk).
Peter Dark writes:
"Furniture has lost one of its best-known characters and one whose personal contribution to so many of its activities has been immense.
I recall vividly one of the first remarks that Leslie Alston made to me. "You know, boy" he said "I make furniture for the cloth cap brigade" perhaps it was this understanding of "the cloth cap brigade" which allied to a shrewd business brain enabled him to build what is today the Alston Group of companies into one of the largest and most successful in the cutthroat market of producing cabinets and upholstery for the mass market
He was a self-made man, but never aggressively so. No pretensions, no pomposity. There was the Rolls and the large yacht down in the Med. But it was always "me chauffeur", "me yacht".
Leslie Alston was a big man, with one of the most distinctive profiles in the business he worked hard and he lived hard, at a pace which much younger men found daunting. Seldom can he have been called upon to take part or to help and said no. At one time or another he was involved in most of the furniture industries organisations and activities and, because of his commercial stature, it was inevitable that he eventually took on the mantle of chairman or president, including the "top job" in the BFM, the European UEA and the FTBA.
It was typical of the man that when his very good friend George Ferguson was suddenly taken ill, there was no hesitation despite all his other responsibilities, Leslie Alston was soon commuting to Kirkcaldy helping to guide the firm of A H Mackintosh, so recently installed in their new factory.
Among the many occasions at which we would meet was the annual dinner of that salesman's organisation with the long title: the Metropolitan (Furniture) branch of the UCTA, of which he was also president More than once he flew back from holiday, just to attend the dinner. Obviously he felt very much at home in such company and spoke to them as one who had been "a tail board salesman", making in the factory, and going out and selling direct from the lorry.
There are a few sections of the industry which will not miss seeing that portly figure in their midst and benefiting from his down-to-earth advice. In my years as CM's editor, Leslie Alston was present at so many of the conferences and functions which the editor attends I shall miss him more than most.
Ref: Cabinetmaker and Retail Furnisher March 19, 1976

From Alston Furniture Website 2011
. . . . . In 1951 Leslie Alston decided to open Alstons Upholstery in Colchester, Essex which has relocated three times within the town to end in its current site in Gosbecks Road. The family has recently purchased an adjoining site to aid further expansion.
Today the fifth generation of Alston brothers, John and David run Alstons Cabinets and Alstons Upholstery, Upholstery now accounts for 75% of the total sales.
They are joined by the sixth generation, Holly and Jessica, the first Alston sisters.

Alston Leslie William Llewelyn CBE of Swans Nest Waldringfield Woodbridge Suffolk died 13 March 1976. Probate Ipswich 26 June 1978. £1,075,745. 781006210r
National Probate Calendar.

Leslie married Eliza SCRIVINER [6033] [MRIN: 2011] on 2 Apr 1927 in Walton le Soken.