This break with the past, proved the final straw for Tom Fenton. With twenty years service to E.M.G., which made him by far the longest serving member of the team, he had perhaps hoped for some promotion, even a seat on the board, in the new scheme of things. When he realised that his long service was not to be rewarded he left to work for a friend of Balfour Davey's, Teddy Norris at The Gramophone Shop, in Sloane Street. His departure might not have caused much consternation at Newman Street, had not Teddy Norris announced that at The Gramophone Shop, Tom Fenton would be writing Fenton's Letter which would be a critical appraisal of all new record issues circulated to all their customers. This was a blatant attempt to emulate and compete with the Monthly Letter, and this act of betrayal must have caused Balfour Davey considerable hurt. He need not have worried though, for E.M.G.'s stature vastly exceeded Fenton's and from that point Fenton's career declined. He was not happy in Sloane Street and so took a repairer's job with Expert at Ingerthorpe. After a time he left them, and was last heard of as a general repairer of radios and gramophones in a shed at Thornton Heath.
