FAMOUS FIRM

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 89, 22 November 1935, Page 8

FAMOUS FIRM

RETIREMENT OF PRINCIPAL,

(From the Guardian's Special Corres-

pondent—By Air Mail)

LONDON, October 12

The retirement of Mr Marcus William Zambra from the firm of Negretti and Zambra, the scientific instrument manufacturers, of Holborn, announced this week, marks the end of an association of names which has been a universal catchword for almost 90 years. Mr Zambra has retired to his home at Seal Chart, Kent—appropriately named "Waterden."

The firm was founded in 1850 and had been in existence only 15 years when the names of Negretti and Zambra assumed a national character as a result of the part played by Mr Negretti, senior partner in the firm, in one of the most remarkable murder trials of the century. The case was the famous Hatton Garden murder for which an Italian named Pelizzioni was charged, and found guilty, although another Italian named Gregorio was implicated by the evidence. The verdict created a sensation among the Italians resident in London, and it was Mr Enrico Negretti, grandfather of the present Negretti brothers in the firm, who was mainly instrumental in tracing the missing Gregorio, who was then put on trial.

Mr Negretti gave evidence for the prosecution, and described how he traced Gregorio to Birmingham, and there persuaded him to give himself up to justice to save his cousin, Pelizzioni, from being hanged. Gregorio was found guilty of manslaughter, but Pelizzioni was tried again on a second indictment. He was acquitted and later received the Queen's pardon on the first verdict.

Mr Marcus Zambra, who is now retiring, is also a grandson of one of the original founders, Mr Joseph Warren Zambra. The original Messrs Negretti and Zambra started busi-

ness as glassblowers and makers of thermometers, but it was at the great exhibition of 1851 that their world-wide reputation as the makers of optical and scientific instruments was established. They are always quoted in the London newspapers for temperature readings.