The company was established in 1750 by Thomas Harrison in Warwick Lane,
London; in 1839 Thomas Richard Harrison entered into partnership with John William Parker, creating
Harrison and Co. It went through similar names and retained Harrison family ownership until 1979 when sold to
Lonrho. Harrison and Sons printed its first stamp, a 1d
Inland Revenue stamp for
Montserrat, in 1866. This seems to be the only stamp printed by the company during the 19th century. It obtained its first
Post Office contract in 1881. In 1910, a new factory opened in
Hayes. The company won the contract to print the single colour United Kingdom
Edward VII stamps in 1911 after the Post Office decided not to renew its contract with
De La Rue. Initially, using printing machines manufactured by
Timsons of
Kettering, it went on to produce most of the British stamps over the 60-year period from the 1930s until the 1990s, including the first UK stamp using the
photogravure method in 1934 and the first photogravure commemoratives in 1935 for
Silver Jubilee of
King George V. The first UK Christmas issue in 1966, on the specially designed Jumelle press, was also printed at Harrison and Sons. They printed their last British commemorative issue, referred to as "
Queen’s Beasts’ issue", in 1998. The stamps were actually printed one year before they were issued to the public. During the 1920s, Harrison & Son printed
banknotes for the
Commonwealth Bank in Australia. In 1933, the factory moved to
High Wycombe. The plant closed in 2003. == Company names ==