Thomas and Edge Ltd , builders

Thomas and Edge Limited, builders, was founded by Edwin Thomas before 1914; he died before 1939. His son Arthur E. Thomas (Member of The Institute of Building) became Governing Director but was killed on active service in the Royal Air Force after he was called up in 1940. He had a son, Robin Thomas.

Other Directors were H.A. Godfrey; Leonard Henry Mildwater (Member of The Institute of Building and Associate Member of The Institution of British Engineers: originally joined the firm in 1914 to learn trade of carpenter and joiner, became General Foreman in 1929, Director in 1937 from which he resigned in 1946 to found his own company) and J.T.L. Wigmore, Director and Secretary.

The firm's projects included work for Government Departments especially War Department contracts. Examples from 1937-1940 include seven barrack blocks and Institute at Aldershot, Hampshire; workshops at Feltham, signals establishments at Woolwich, and the construction of factories, laboratories, research buildings, office blocks and ranges at Woolwich Arsenal which took four years to complete. Jobs outside London included grandstands built at race courses such as Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire (in 1929) before the Second World War and buildings abroad including Africa. By 1930 the firm had a Birmingham office and was undertaking contracts in Cheltenham, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Brighton and Lewes, Sussex. In 1944 work outside London, overseen by Mildwater, amounted to 95% of the company's annual turnover, thanks mainly to contracts for the Air Ministry.

Offices were at Equitable House, 25 Greens End, Woolwich (the former premises of the Woolwich Equitable Building Society). The firm also occupied premises at Eton Road and the company's Works at the Royal Dockyard Wharf, Woolwich.

(Main source of information: a descendant of Leonard Henry Mildwater, September 2018)