Ensign cameras were originally produced by the Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Company. However, 1930 saw Ensign Limited floated and the company finally take the name of the cameras it produced. On the nights of the 24th and 25th September 1940 enemy bombing destroyed Ensign House, the offices of Ensign Ltd. at 88/89 High Holbourn in London. On Oct. 7th of the same year Ensign Ltd., the sales wing of Houghton-Butcher, was wound up and the sale of the remaining stock of enlargers, epidiascopes and cine-cameras was taken over by Johnson & Sons of Hendon.