A former employee of the Adelaide printing firm Carey and Page, Joseph Williams Gillingham joined in partnership with George Frederick Hussey in 1888 as Hussey and Gillingham. After Hussey retired in 1921, Gillingham continued in business with his nephew G. C. Swann as Gillingham and Swann, until Swann's retirement in 1924, when the firm continued as Gillingham and Co. Gillingham died in 1943, having willed a majority shareholding in the company to the Methodist Ladies College, Adelaide.
