Henry Sacks

Sacks-and Airstrips
A. & S. HENRY & CO., LTD.,
Imperial Wharf, Tunnel Avenue, S.E.IO.
To A. & S. Henry & Co., Ltd., sack and bag manufacturers, fell the task and privilege during the War years of producing containers for many and varied commodities in urgent demand for H.M. Forces and civilians, both at home and overseas.
Jute bags by the million have been used for carrying such essential foodstuffs as flour, sugar, potatoes, coffee and cocoa. The firm’s jute bags have paid an important part in carrying the Army’s bulk food supplies. To cite one instance, our soldiers enjoyed clean wholesome bread, brought to the fighting lines by mobile field bakeries in Henry’s jute bags.
The firm have manufactured large paillasses for the use of the fighting forces. Aircraft and tanks needed nuts, bolts and rivets. Many of these were taken to the war factories in jute bags of the firm’s manufacture. Sandbags by the tens of thousands have been manufactured to provide blast walls and to reinforce shelters, whilst the sand-mat was all too familiar to many fire-fighters during the time of the incendiary raids on London.
Cement for the Mulberry harbour was in many instances carried in heavy sacks of Henry manufacture, and rolls of hessian cloth were used in the construction of airstrips.
Once our invading armies had gained a foothold Oil the continent it was essential that airstrips be speedily provided. One of the most interesting developments in the construction of these airstrips was the abandoning of the steel mesh form of construction and the use instead of hessian cloth impregnated with bitumen. Excellent results were obtained with this material.
On the Home Front small cotton bags were supplied in large quantities for the carrying of such commodities as flour and fertilisers. The demand for fertilisers, bagged in small quantities, has greatly increased owing to the necessity of cultivating all available land.
Now that the War is over, foodstuffs in large quantities have still to be conveyed to the starving peoples of Europe and the firm is making every effort to meet this and other calls upon their productive capacity

Taken from a Greenwich Council booklet on wartime Greenwich