De La Rue then as a stationer and printer. In 1831 he secured his business a Royal Warrant to produce playing cards. In 1855 it started printing postage stamps and in 1860 banknotes. In 1896, the family partnership was converted into a private company. In 1921, the de la Rue family sold their interests. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1947. Then called "Thomas De La Rue & Company, Limited", it changed its name in 1958 to "The De La Rue Company Limited". A takeover bid for De La Rue was made by the Rank Organisation plc in
Hippolyte De La Rue Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor. De La Rue was posted to Alexandria, Egypt, in January 1919 to command No. 270 (Seaplane) Squadron. Offered a permanent commission in the RAF that August, he nevertheless returned to Australia and sought employment through Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Goble, an ex-RNAS pilot then seconded to the Navy Office. Goble, desiring a specialist seaplane pilot for naval cooperation work, arranged a captain's commission in the recently established Australian Air Corps, successor to the wartime Australian Flying Corps. On 17 June 1920, in an Airco DH.9A, De La Rue accompanied Captain Adrian Cole on a flight