William Temporal (1854-1923) was born in Sheffield, the son of William Temporal, a butchers’ blade forger, and his wife, Hannah.  The family lived in Trafalgar Street.  His brother was Thomas Temporal.  William Jun. was, in turn, a butchers’ blade maker, shoe knives manager, traveller (for a corn miller), and razor manufacturer.  By 1919, he was listed as a razor manufacturer at 120a (back of) Broomspring Lane.  Temporal’s trade mark was ‘TEMPLE BRAND’.

William Temporal, Gloucester Street, died (aged 68) on 20 July 1923 – the day it was announced that the firm would become a private limited company (with £2,000 capital).  He was buried in Ecclesall, leaving £5,170 to his widow, Emma.  William’s co-directors on the company prospectus were Sydney Barton (1886-1969), who had married William’s daughter, Ethel May, in 1912; Stanley Revitt Foulds (1890-1977); and Sydney Kay (1895-1964).  The latter was descended from a family of coal dealers, but as a teenager became a cutlery manufacturer’s errand boy.

A report of a fire at the workshops described Temporal’s as ‘consisting of a one, long-storey building run behind several houses in a closely-built residential neighbourhood’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 7 September 1927).  In the Census (1939), Kay was enumerated as a cutlery manager, living at Thoresby Road, Sheffield; Barton as the managing director of an engineering company (presumably Temporal’s), living at Chapel en le Frith.  Kay and Barton managed the business into the 1950s.  Sydney Kay died at The Royal Infirmary in Sheffield on 14 August 1964.  He left £546.  Temporal’s was not listed in directories after 1963, so Kay’s death may have prompted Barton’s retirement.  He lived at Grindleford, Derbyshire, and died on 15 February 1969, aged 82.  His estate was valued at £34,379.  William Temporal Ltd was struck off the register of companies in 1974.