Versions of this article have been published in the Reel News (Old Reel Collectors

Association) and the Tackle Box (Canadian Antique Fishing Collectors Association).

Paul Manuel & Ken Kerr

July 22, 2020

Reel Canadian Entrepreneurs Heard & Wilson

During the early 1940s, Canadian sportfishing was severely impacted by the lack
of non-essential imports like fishing tackle and materials needed to make them. At
the outbreak of WWII, the 1940 War Exchange Conservation Act of Canada
restricted importation of certain articles from "non-sterling" countries. Fishing rods
were hard to come by, as were reels and lines1. Premium British tackle, like Hardy
fly reels, was very hard to obtain and fishermen often had to make do with used
tackle.

During May 1941, Canadian revenue Minister Gibson exempted parts used in the
manufacture or repair of fishing tackle from the prohibited list 2. These
circumstances provided an opportunity and motivation for Canadian companies to
meet domestic demand for fishing tackle by making it in Canada. Heard & Wilson
Limited was an enigmatic company that incorporated in Oct. 1944 and made fishing
reels in Vancouver, British Columbia (B.C.) to take advantage of this situation. As
vintage tackle collectors, we occasionally find their reels but until now there has
been no information published about the business or the partners.

The Reels

Heard & Wilson trolling reels are immediately recognizable to collectors. Although
the reels appear to be made from Bakelite®, they are actually made of injection-
molded plastic with a metal insert layer for added strength underneath the plastic
surface of the reel footbridge. The reel foot is made of pressed steel, attached to the
reel body with brass rivets. The winding knobs are turned aluminum with a matte
finish. The clicker tongue is installed on a sliding aluminum plate behind the brass
clicker switch, moving it to or away from the clicker gear when the switch is moved.
The clicker spring is a simple steel wire. The drag control is a knurled aluminum
knob as seen on similar trolling reels. The reels have simple brass and aluminum
fittings including a sliding line guide as seen on Heaton reels from the turn of the
19th century.

These simple reels and their materials were successfully designed for exposure to
saltwater fishing conditions, large fish, and trouble-free operation. These were
intended to substitute for similar reels by Allcock and would have been the low-cost
competitor to trolling and mooching reels by Peetz and Gibbs. There are 3 named
models of the Heard & Wilson reels, each with different diameters: 3" Grilse, 4"
Cohoe and 5" Tyee. There are also a number of reels in collections bearing the Heard
and Wilson maker's mark but with no model name3. Some of the reels are marked
PAT PEND but there is no related patent in Canada or the U.S. by the company or
partners and no patents of similar reels during this time frame.
Later, Heard became a prolific inventor, named in at least 7 unrelated U.S. and
foreign patents4. Perhaps the PAT PEND mark was simply a decoy to scare off
competitors. The names Grilse, Cohoe, and Tyee marked on the reels were never
registered as trademarks. There is one known newspaper ad in the August 17, 1945,
Victoria Daily Times offering these models by name through The Hudson's Bay
Company stores, priced at $8.60, $9.70 and $11.50, respectively5. The company
name Heard & Wilson is not mentioned in the ad. An April 1946, Vancouver Sun
article6 about the return of fishing tackle to Vancouver shops, stated that Heard &
Wilson reels were available for sale by many local retailers, along with products
from B.C. makers Cemm, Coates, Gibbs, Peetz, and Superflex. In the Sun article,
Heard & Wilson's brown plastic reels are erroneously described as being "bakelite"
which is a widely held misconception.

Heard & Wilson Limited

Heard & Wilson Limited (B.C. Registry ID: BC00188587) was incorporated on
October 19, 1944, and was announced in two local newspapers8. They were listed as
tool manufacturers. The 28-page B.C. government file9 on Heard & Wilson is largely
boilerplate for the formation of a typical small corporation. There were just 2
directors: William Lane Heard, President, who resided at 2922 West 39th St
Vancouver B.C., and Norman Oswald Wilson, Secretary-Treasurer, who resided at
1785 24th St, West Vancouver. The company started with $10,000 share capital.
Heard and Wilson each held half the shares. They listed their occupations as
toolmakers. Initial company assets were mortgaged through the Canadian Imperial
Bank of Commerce (CIBC).

The official purposes of the company ranged widely from tool making to
manufacturing, naming several specifics such as dental appliances but nothing about
fishing reels. The closest aspect mentioned is the manufacture of plastic products.
Heard & Wilson Limited was required to operate in accordance with the B.C.
provisions of the Canadian Engineering Profession Act.

On Aug 1, 1945, there was a change of company address from 841 Howe St., a
downtown Vancouver office location, to a workshop in an area of light industry, at
1261 Charles St., Greater Vancouver. On Jan 16, 1946, Heard & Wilson bought
enough machine tools to fill that workshop, spending $18,403.47, mortgaged
through The Canadian Credit Men's Trust Association Limited. (In 2020 dollars, that
amount of money would equate to nearly $260,000, thus a substantial investment).
Equipment obtained included 4 lathes, a milling machine, 5 drill presses, 2 band-
saws along with an assortment of sanders, welders, grinders, saws, plus a (then
vintage) 1929 Chevy truck. There is no mention of injection molding equipment but
the machine tools listed could have been used to make molds or even make one or
more molding machines.
 During April 1945, Heard & Wilson Limited received "V-Flag honours" from
Vancouver War Finance Headquarters in the category of firms with "smaller group
payroll"10. This recognition referred to domestic war loans raised by corporations
and individuals.

The winding-up of Heard & Wilson Limited was not graceful. The B.C. Government
unilaterally acted to dissolve the corporation because the company had failed to
provide obligatory returns and documents for at least 2 years prior to the final
warning notice that was issued to them on May 5, 1948. The mailed notice went
unclaimed and was returned to the sender. The notice was sent to the original 841
Howe St. business address, ignoring the formal change of address in the B.C.
government’s file. The notice of Dissolution would have been published in the B.C.
Gazette one month later. Given no record of any response, they would have been
dissolved 2 months after that notice was published. The archive file wrapper
indicates a formal end date of September 30, 1948. One possible reason for the
dissolution was found on a 1949 record of William Heard and his wife crossing the
U.S. border at Blaine Washington, where William was listed as having a ‘badly
mangled left hand’11. It is unknown when that injury occurred or whether that led to
the demise of Heard & Wilson Limited.

The Partners and Players

So how did a tiny, low budget, ’tool manufacturing’ company in Vancouver B.C.
start making fishing reels out of the blue and with high tech methods? It was a
combination of motivation, opportunity, plastic injection-molding technology, and
tool-making experience gained at aircraft maker Boeing. There is also a connection
with truss-making for people suffering from hernias. The technical know-how or
more likely the financial investment by a truss maker also plays a part in this story.

During the early 1940s, William L. Heard was listed in the city directory 12 as a
"rupture specialist" and a "truss maker" living in Vancouver and married to wife
Irene. The same year, Norman Oswald Wilson was also living in Vancouver with his
wife Deborah Millikan Wilson. He was listed as a "toolmaker" at "Boeings". (In 1934,
U.S. legislation required Boeing to split up its operations, plane-making, and
transport businesses resulting in the Boeing Airplane Company, United Airlines, and
United Technologies)13. Before Heard & Wilson was formed, William Heard and
Norman Wilson teamed up temporarily with Irving Hassard, another toolmaker who
worked at Boeings. Before working at Boeings as a machinist, Hassard held a variety
of unrelated sales jobs. The three men formed a short-lived tool-making company
called "Heard, Hassard and Wilson" that was listed only in 1943. Hassard was
subsequently listed through 1946 as providing accounting services but not
connected with Heard or Wilson.

In addition to Norman Wilson's background as a toolmaker, he held jobs over time

as an insurance agent, a printer, proprietor, and salesman. At the start of the great
depression, he was employed by the Auto Club of B.C. as a clerk and then as a
draftsman, so he had technical skills from early in his career. According to the City
Directory, Norman Wilson's job at Heard & Wilson was listed as Manager. He was
born in 1909 in Victoria, B.C., and lived most of his life in Vancouver where he
resided with his wife and two children12. In 1964, Norman Wilson died in Victoria at
the age of 55.

William Heard's role in the company was never listed in the city directories, even
though he was officially the president of the company. William Heard was born
William Lane Simpkins on October 15, 1905, in Victoria, B.C12. His father, Edward
Thomas Higley Simpkins, was 32 and his mother, Edith Violetta, was 27. The family
spent time living in Arizona until William’s father passed away in 1910. The remaining
family relocated back to Oak Bay, B.C. where William’s mother died in 1915 leaving
him an orphan at the age of 10. Edith's will appointed a Charles E. Heard as guardian of
her 3 children.

In the 1928 yearbook of the University of Western Ontario, W. Heard was pictured
with the "Executive Arts 1931" student council. On March 19, 1930, He married Irene
May Rust of Toronto in his hometown Victoria, B.C. They had two children during their
marriage. William and his wife Irene initially used Simkins as their surname however at
some point they changed their surnames from Simkins to Heard, the same as William’s
guardian. At various times William's surname was documented as Simkin, Simkins,
Heard, and also as Heard Simkins.

William Heard's background in hernia trusses stems from a 1906 U.S. patent for a
truss14 that was invented by an unrelated Canadian in B.C. That patent was assigned
to Charles Edward Heard; an M.D. listed in 1921 as a rupture specialist, the same
man who became William's legal guardian. The Truss Man was a truss fitting
business in Vancouver sometimes associated with the name William Heard and for a
few years, it was listed under his birth name W.L. Simkin. Eventually, the Truss Man
business was taken over by Thompson Madsen who in 1947 was still promoting the
40 years old and long expired Truss patent. This trivia may have nothing to do with
the reels other than perhaps as a source of finance for reel maker Heard & Wilson.

William died on September 9, 1978, in Milton, Ontario, at the age of 72, and he is
buried there.

Epilogue

The Vancouver Sun Sports column of April 27, 1947, had an article titled: Junky
Tackle is Dominant, bemoaning the quality of tackle beginning to "dribble" into
town. Local shopkeepers were still having a hard time getting "fine old quality"
tackle. Products with "war time improvements", along with products from
"England" and "America" and local reel maker Cemm were mentioned with positive
comments but there was no specific mention of Heard & Wilson.
 A brown plastic trolling reel with red knobs marked Columbia looks similar to the
Heard and Wilson reels. Specimens are marked Made in Canada so collectors might
speculate that Heard & Wilson also made Columbia reels. However, there was a June
1949 Vancouver Sun newspaper ad for Eaton's that advertised the Columbia reel,
confirming the reel was made in British Columbia but the date of the ad makes it
nearly impossible for it to have been a reel made by Heard and Wilson because
Heard & Wilson Limited was formally dissolved some 10 months earlier on
September 30, 1948 and failed to file obligatory government documents for some 2
years prior. It is entirely possible that William Heard or Norman Wilson was
running the molding machines to make the Columbia reels but not on behalf of
Heard and Wilson Limited.

A number of similar brown plastic trolling reels appeared in subsequent ads for
local retailers like Woodward's in Vancouver. Like the Columbia, Heard and Wilson
made none of the more recent reels. Companies such as Allcocks, Heaton, etc. made
some trolling reels in England that may have looked somewhat similar but were not
the same design as reels made by Heard & Wilson Limited.
1
Aug 19, 1944, Victoria Times, pg. 9, Sports Mirror column, Proquest.
2
Vancouver Sun May 17, 1941, Proquest.
3
Collection of Paul Manuel and a few more mechanical and cosmetic details of the reels are
shown in Northwest Fishing Reels (2017-Christianson & Harwood).
4
US2886351 (A), GB811602 (A), GB893566 (A), FR1241210 (A), FR1346729 (A), DE1240790 (B),
DE1086599 (B).
5
The Victoria Daily Times, Aug 17, 1945, pg. 8, Proquest.
6
April 27, 1946, Vancouver Sun, Angling Gear Back to Lure Fishermen, Proquest.
7
B.C. Registry Services.
8
Vancouver Sun Oct 20, 1944, and Victoria Daily Times Oct 19, 1944, Proquest.
9
BC Registry ID BC0018858, Microfilm B05334, BC Archives, Royal BC Museum.
10
April 30, 1945, Vancouver Sun, pg. 9, "New Companies Over the Top in Loan Drive", Proquest.
11
Ancestry.com
12
Vancouver Public Library's collection of digitized British Columbia city directories for 1860-
1955 are available online at https://bccd.vpl.ca
13
Wikipedia: Boeing>History
14
US Patent 812,031, Truss, by GM Farleigh of Rossland, B.C., assignor to C.E. Heard