I'm most grateful to Terry Aarons for the information he so kindly provided. The following is based on a number of e-mails, only slightly edited to have everything in chronological order.
Jack Rosenthal was truly honest and trustworthy. A man who always honoured his word and a man blessed with a real sense of humour. He was a good man in all respects. Not afraid to take huge risks in business if he felt strongly enough that the risk would pay off (his intuitions were mostly correct).
I first met Jack Rosenthal at Rovex (part of the Triang Group) where I was working, based in Merton. Before joining Triang I was the Sales Director of Raphael Lipkin Ltd. which was sold to Triang in the late 1960’s. Following this acquisition, the position of Premium and Promotional Merchandise Director for the Triang Group was created which I filled. The job entailed finding new business opportunities within the premium and promotional industry. Jack set up their wholesale division. He worked from the Merton offices at Triang and the wholesale division warehouse and distribution centre was at Margate. Rovex were already in financial trouble so in 1971 Jack left to start his own company.
Jack and I became partners, with two others, in 1971 when we bought a very small toy import company named Alltrades Distributors Ltd. This grew to be one of the top toy importers in the UK, becoming exclusive agents and distributors for several major toy manufacturers from around the world, taking the turnover from just £135,000 in our first year up to £4.3 million in just 11 years of trading (equivalent to appx £25 million at today’s value). In the company, Jack was responsible for all aspects of buying and finances and as such was the Managing Director, whilst I ran the marketing and sales.
Over a relatively short period of time we established strong trading partnerships with manufacturers in Hong Kong, China, Japan, East Germany and Italy. Some of the companies that we worked with as exclusive UK agents/distributors include Tomy pre-school and battery operated toys, Zylmex diecast toys, Biemme ride-on toys, both Taiyo and Tamiya radio control toys, Masudaya clockwork toys, PMC remote control battery operated vehicles etc. Don’t recall the exact address of Alltrades, but the office and warehouse were located in the Peckham district of London (original post code area was London SE15).
Unfortunately when he suffered his first heart attack during the mid 70’s Jack had to give up the arduous buying trips to the Far East and so concentrated his efforts on the finances (his early background was in accountancy) and the general running of the business whilst I took over all matters relating to product. We became joint Managing Directors at that time. The business closed down in 1983 shortly after Jack had suffered some serious health issues and he was unable to work full time. Cash flow problems caused by our fast growth were putting enormous strains on him.
Jack Rosenthal was married to Esther Rosenthal and they had a daughter, Ruth Rosenthal, whom I recall working at Alltrades for just a few months during 1979 or 1980, assisting her father on the bookkeeping side of the business. As far as I know Ruth never worked at Triang.
With a reputation of being able to "sell ice-cream to Eskimos," Terry Aarons continued a distinguished and successful sales career with other toy companies. After 57 years in the toy business, he took an 'early' retirement at 73 years of age in 2013.