William Page (1802-1857) was a Birmingham spoon and fork, cutlery, and electro-plate manufacturer.  Page’s was acquired in the early 1940s by Henry William Pratt (1888-1950), aka Harry Bradbury-Pratt.   The son of a Billingsgate fish porter, Henry William Pratt became a West End club, restaurant, and cabaret owner.   Presumably, Harry’s double-barrelled name (which used his mother’s maiden name, Bradbury) was intended to impress his clientele.  A connections with the catering trade (and the impending War) led to his acquisition of William Page & Co, as a vehicle for selling to caterers a range of kitchen utensils, glasses, crockery, cutlery, and pans.  Bradbury-Pratt was known as a ‘tough taskmaster; he thought he paid the best wages in the West End, but if he saw you skiving, then you were fired, just like that … [but] … if he thought you were hard up, or you were unwell, then you got the best money could buy’ (Grainger, 2009).  He described his premises as the largest show-rooms in the country directed to the requirements of the catering profession.  

After the War, Harry Bradbury-Pratt planned further expansion.  In 1948, William Page & Partners Ltd was registered as a spoon and fork manufacturer at Campbell Road, Bedford.  It was capitalised at £5,000.  That firm had a Sheffield branch at 20 Cambridge Street (and later at 14/16 Bower Spring).  The intention seems to have been to create a retail brand, which was separate from the catering side of the business.  William Page & Partners sold boxed sets of flatware and stainless cutlery, using the ‘WP’ crown logo, with ‘Est.  1834’.  The firm advertised at the British Industries Fair in 1951.  However, Harry had died on 27 February 1950, aged 62, at the London Clinic, Devonshire Place.   He left £63,415, which may have been boosted by £30,000 of winnings from his string of fifteen racehorses (Belfast News-Letter, 28 February 1950).   In 1964, William Page & Partners was liquidated.  In 1972, William Page & Co Ltd was absorbed by W. M. Still Group.  By 2000, Page was part of the Chinacraft Catering Group Ltd.