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
Warren De la Rue memoirs, entitled "Researches on Solar Physics", published by De La Rue, in conjunction with Professor Balfour Stewart and Mr B Loewy, in the "Phil. Trans." (vol. clix. pp. 1–110, and vol. clx. pp. 389–496). He took some of the very first photos of the moon, so he got a crater named after him the "De La Rue (crater)". In 1860 De La Rue took the photoheliograph to Spain for the purpose of photographing the total solar eclipse which occurred on 18 July of that year. This expedition formed the subject of the Bakerian Lecture already referred to. The photographs obtained