English Electric Co

1901.

1919. Ref AA below

1921. Wren. Exhibit at the Shuttleworth Collection.

Turbine-generator nameplate, Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry

‎‎

August 1946.

October 1949.

October 1954.

1955. Deltic Locomotive built at Dick, Kerr and Co. Exhibit at the Shildon Locomotion Museum.

Thunderbird Mk1 Surface to Air Missile (SAM). Exhibit at the National Museum of Flight.

P.25 Lightning F.2A. Exhibit at the National Museum of Flight.

Ritemp oven. Exhibit at Lawrence House Museum

of Queen's House, Kingsway, London, WC2 - Registered Office. Works at Stafford; also at Bradford, Preston and Rugby. Telephone: Stafford 700. Telegraphic Address: "Enelectico, Stafford". (1937)

• English Electric was a 20th-century British industrial manufacturer, initially of electric motors, and expanding to include railway locomotives and aviation, before becoming part of The General Electric Company GEC.

• 1900 June. Tramways and Light Railways Exhibition at Islington. Exhibited in conjunction with Dick, Kerr and Co and the Electric Railway and Tramway Carriage Works.

• 1917 Dick, Kerr and Co acquired the United Electric Car Co, who made trams in Preston.

• 1918 The English Electric Company was formed as a public company.

• 1918-1919 English Electric took over Dick, Kerr and Co of Preston, Willans and Robinson of Rugby, and the Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company of Bradford. It also bought the Stafford works of Siemens Brothers Dynamo Works. The Dick, Kerr and Cotraction activities were concentrated in Preston and continued there until 1930. Also included was Coventry Ordnance Works.

• 1926 Aircraft department closed after last English Electric Kingston flying boat built.

• 1927 See Aberconway for information on the company and its history.

• 1927 Also see Aberconway for information on the company and its history.

• 1927 One of the UK's major electrical-machinery and plant manufacturers, others beings GEC, BTH, Metropolitan-Vickers, and C. A. Parsons.

• Late 1920s EE was in a parlous financial state. A complex financial reorganisation, apparently backed by American Westinghouse interests, was needed to save it.

• 1930 The manufacture of electrical equipment was moved to Bradford. Tramcar, bus body, and rolling stock production stayed at Preston.

• 1930 The man most associated with EEC, George Nelson, became managing director.

• 1930s EE supplied equipment for the electrification of the English Southern Railway system, which gave it a strong position in the traction market.

• 1937 British Industries Fair Advert for domestic electrical goods; fuse gear and fuse fittings. Electric Cookers, fires, Water Heaters, Washing Machines, Iron, F.H.P. Motors. High Rupturing Capacity Industrial Fuse Gear. Distribution Boards, Fuse Switchgear, Overhead Busbar System. sub-station Fuse Gear. Rural Distribution Fuse Fittings. Cartridge Fuses. (Electricity: Industrial and Domestic Section - Stand No. Cb.609)

• 1939 Acquire Samlesbury Aerodrome in Lancashire and starts construction of the Handley Page Hampden and Handley Page Halifax.

• 1942 The company took over Napier and Son, an aero-engine company, and this helped establish the company's aircraft division. Company factories were converted to build the Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber.

• 1944 Producing 180 bhp engines for rail cars at the old Willans Works at Rugby.

• 1945 and after: EE invested heavily in aircraft design, leading to major successes in the 1950s with the English Electric Lightning interceptor aircraft and the Canberra tactical bomber, which in 2005 was still flying in reconnaissance and other roles with many air forces, including the Royal Air Force.

• 1946 EE took over the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co. This was a foray into domestic markets.

• 1953 Manufacturer of TV sets

• 1955 EE took over the Vulcan Foundry and Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns, both with substantial railway engineering pedigrees. EE also made steam turbines.

• 1958 EE's aviation business was set up separately, as English Electric Aviation Ltd.

• 1960 EE tried to take over one of the other major British electrical companies, GEC.

• Early 1960s Under government pressure EE rationalised its aircraft division, which later became part of the new British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), English Electric having a 40% stake in BAC.

• 1961 Group with 22 subsidiaries. Employ 84,200 persons in the group.

• 1963 English Electric's guided weapons division added to BAC.

• 1967 Supplied the turbine generators for Retford power station.

• 1967-1968 Failed bid for EE by Plessey Co.

• 1968 Details of their Mechanical Engineering Laboratory at Whetstone.

• 1968 Announce agreement to develop hydraulic turbo-machinery.

• 1968 The new GEC conglomerate took over EE.

See Also

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Sources of Information

• [1] Wikipedia
• The Modern Diesel edited by Geoffrey Smith. Published by Iliffe and Sons 1944
• AA. [2] Image courtesy of Aviation Ancestry
• 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE