William Beardmore and Company

William Beardmore and Company was a Scottish engineering and shipbuilding company based in Glasgow and the surrounding areas.

It was active between about 1890 and 1930 and at its peak employed about 40,000 people. It was founded and owned by William Beardmore, later Lord Invernairn, after whom the Beardmore Glacier was named.

Steel, tanks and guns

Initially the company operated a steelworks and gun arsenal at Parkhead, in the east end of Glasgow. This was the most profitable part of the company and was the last part to be disposed off after the death of Lord Invernairn in 1936.

Ships and engines

A shipyard, The Naval Construction Yard, was opened at Dalmuir in 1899 and was the most advanced yard in Britain at the time. The yard however had problems attracting work and nearly closed. The Anglo German shipbuilding arms race rescued the fortunes and several dreadnought orders were secured, including:

• HMS Conqueror (1911)
• HMS Benbow (1913)
• HMS Ramillies (1917)

Many cruisers, destroyers and other ships were also built, including the world's first aircraft carrier HMS Argus (1917).

The post war recession hit the firm hard, and the shipyard was forced to close in 1930. Part of the site and some of the existing buildings later became incorporated into ROF Dalmuir; and part was used by the General Post Office's cable laying ships.

The company's experience in building engines for ships lead them into building engines for airships and aircraft.

Airships and Aircraft

The company also built and ran the Inchinnan Airship Constructional Station at Inchinnan. It produced the R27, R32, R34 and R36 airships.

The company built Sopwith Pup aircraft at Dalmuir under licence, it later designed a shipborne version of the Pup designated the Beardmore W.B.III. A hundred of these aircraft were produced and delivered to the Royal Naval Air Service.

The company acquired a licence for stressed-skin construction using the Rohrbach principles. An order for two flying boats using this construction idea was placed with Beardmore. It had the aircraft built for it by the Rohrbach Metal Aeroplane Co in Copenhagen and they were delivered to the RNAS as the Beardmore Inverness.

An experimental heavy and large all-metal transport was designed at built at Dalmuir and delivered to the Royal Air Force as the Beardmore Inflexible.

Cars and Taxis

In 1919 a range of cars was announced made by a subsidiary company, Beardmore Motors Ltd, based in factories in Anniesland, Coatbridge and Paisley.

The smallest of the initial offerings was the 1486 cc four cylinder 11.4 with overhead camshaft (ohc) and made at Anniesland. The camshaft system proved to be unreliable and the engine was replaced by a 1656 cc side valve unit in 1919. Development work was continued on the ohc system and an engine of this type was re-introduced in 1921 of the same size and replacing the side valve one. It was increased in capacity to 1960 cc in 1924 and the car's name changed to the 12.8. This increase must have been too much as it was reduced to 1854 cc in the 12/30 which continued in production until 1925. A Sports 12 version was announced in 1924 with a guaranteed top speed of 70 mph priced at £550.

A large car, the four cylinder 4072 cc Thirty was made at the Coatbridge works in small numbers in 1920.

The most famous range of Beardmores was the 1924 14/40 made at Paisley where the engines for all the cars were also produced. This had a 2297 cc side valve engine with aluminium cylinder head. The engine was increased to 2391 cc in 1925 and the car redesignated the 16/40 and this was the basis for the Beardmore Taxi. In all about 500 private cars were made but taxi production was nearer 6000.

Production ended in Scotland in 1929 but a London assembly plant was then opened for making Taxis in what had been the service depot. This continued in operation until 1967.

The Paramount models, built in the 1950s-1960s were unique in that while their styling looked 1940s, they actually had up-to-date Ford-based mechanicals beneath.

Motorcycles

Between 1921 and 1924 Beardmore took over building the Precision range of motorcycles that had been developed by Frank Baker, selling them as "Beardmore Precision". Engine sizes ranged from 250 cc to 600 cc. They also supplied the engines to several cyclecar makers. After Beardmore stopped manufacture Baker set up his own company again and restarted production eventually selling out to James.

See also

British motorcycle manufacturers

Current: Triumph · CCM

Defunct: AJS (1909-1969) · Ambassador · AMC (1937-196?)  · Ariel · Armstrong · Beardmore Precision (1921-1924) · Blackburne · Brough (1908-1926) · Brough Superior (1919-1940) · BSA (1919-1972) · Calthorpe · Clarendon · Cotton (1918-1980) · DOT (1908-1978) · Douglas (1907-1957) · EMC · Excelsior (1896-1964) · Greeves (1953-1976) · Francis-Barnet · Haden · Hesketh · HRD (1922-1928) · James · Matchless (1899-1966) · New Hudson · Norman · Norton (1898-1992) · OEC Commander · OK-Supreme (1882-1940) · Palmelli · Panther (1904-1967) · Quasar (1975-1982) · Rickman (1960-1975) · Royal Enfield (1893-1970) · Rudge (1911-1946) · Scott · Sprite (1965-1971) · Spryt · Sunbeam · Velocette (1904-1968) · Villiers · Vincent (1928-1959) · Wooler (1909-1954)

• Arthur MacManus

External links

• detailed history of the company
• R.D. Thomas, B.Patterson, Dreadnoughts in Camera 1905-1920, 1998, Sutton Publishing
• Johnson, Ian, (1993). Beardmore Built: The Rise and Fall of a Clydeside Shipyard. Clydebank: Clydebank District Libraries & Museums Department.
• Clyde built ships data base - lists all ships built on the Clyde