The Francis Chichester Map and Guide publishing house was founded in 1946 - the day after Francis Chichester was demobbed from the Royal Air Force. He was map designer, publisher, salesman, secretary and office boy all rolled into one. His office was one room on the ground floor in the lovely William and Mary house in St James's Place London, which his wife and he bought in 1944 during the height of the V1 "doodlebug" bombing campaign against London. His first commercial undertaking in 1946 was turning 15,000 wartime Air Ministry maps into jigsaw puzzels and selling them to the major London stores.
His vast experience of flying and navigation led to him producing air-route maps for many major commercial airlines seeking to establish themselves in a market fast developing in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
He went on to design other maps for jigsaws: the Heart of London; the Heart of Paris, Shakespeare’s Country and London Zoo. The Heart of London developed from the original jigsaw form, into paper form and then into book form. The latter change was made following a visit to London by the partner in Francis Chichester’s New Zealand company. He used the map around London and after becoming tired of a flapping map on a windy corner he suggested it should be put into pocket book for
m. Thus, the world famous map series was launched.
By the time of the Coronation in 1953 the business, especially the Illustrated Map
of London was so well established that an extract of the map was used for the Coronation Procession route. The map was again used in 1981, by The Sunday Telegraph Magazine when HRH The Prince of Wales married the late Princess Diana.
Achievements
Francis Chichester was well known as a pioneer aviator. In 1929 he had made the second ever solo flight to Australia; and in 1931 the first solo flight across the Tasman Sea from East to West in his Gipsy Moth aeroplane fitted with floats. He was awarded the Johnson Memorial Trophy for his epic flight – he was the first to receive this coveted award. He also made the first solo long distance flight in a seaplane when he flew from New Zealand to Japan. Unfortunately this flight ended in disaster when he collided with an overhead cable and crashed in Katsuura Harbour. He was badly injured but was nursed back to health by a brilliant doctor and kind Japanese nurses.
Francis Chichester’s best known ac
hievement was when he sailed single-handed around the world in 1966-7. He was knighted at Greenwich by HM Queen Elizabeth II on his return to England in a rare public investiture. The sword used was the one which Queen Elizabeth I had used to knight Francis Drake. Francis Chichester had crossed the Atlantic several times prior to that, most notably in 1960, winning the first single-handed transatlantic race.
In St James’s Place, their home as well as their business headquarters, he was greatly helped by his wife Sheila who had become a director when the firm became a limited company in 1956. In 1958, when her husband was ill, Lady Chichester took over the running of the business and London Woman, a highly successful shopping guide for women was conceived and published for the first time. London Man, an equivalent shopping and services guide for men, followed soon after.
Today Francis Chichester Limited publishes three pocket maps and guides. Originally sold over the counter of the major London department stores, by far the greater proportion of sales is now to the corporate market for distribution as goodwill gifts. The most popular is the Pocket Map and Guide of London, containing forty pages of four-colour immensely clear maps of Central London plus information on hotels, restaurants, theatres, museums and much more.
With the increasingly international character of London through business and tourism various foreign language editions were produced. Predictably, the European 5-Language Guide to London was the most popular. Other trading partners and important markets have been reflected in Arabic and Japanese editions. Portuguese, Russian and Chinese versions have also been produced in limited editions.
From Past to Present
Sir Francis's flying and sailing achievements are commemorated by a number of memorials; most notably the Navigators’ Memorial in the cloisters of 
Westminster Abbey. There is also a memorial in the chapel at Buckler’s Hard in Hampshire where Gipsy Moth IV had a mooring; a “Green Plaque” on 9, St James’s Place;and a recently erected granite plinth unveiled by HRH Prince Philip, on the West Hoe Pier at Plymouth where Sir Francis stepped shore after his solo circumnavigation.
A slate tablet can also be seen in the parish church at Shirwell, North Devon, commemorating Sir Francis’s life and achievements. He was born in Shirwell Rectory, the second son of the Rector, and he and his wife are buried in the churchya
rd.
Sir Francis was recognised for his epic circumnavigation by Royal Mail in 2003 when a series of stamps entitled Extreme Endeavours, featured him along with Sir Edmund Hillary, Amy Johnson, Captain Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Dame Freya Stark.
For many years, after the circumnavigation, Gipsy Moth IV was placed alongside the Cutty Sark at Greenwich. Her condition gradually deteriorated until, in 2003, she
was rescued by the combined help of the magazine Yachting Monthly and the UK Sailing Academy based at Cowes. With the enthusiastic help of donors and volunteers, she was restored to her former glory and, once the work was completed, she was relaunched at Gosport in 2006. She then once more circumnavigated the globe with a series of young people as crew, to celebrate the 40th anniversary
of the original voyage.
