Vickers

I received such a warm response to my LinkedIn post on the Vickers’ offices by Sheffield Forgemasters that I need to say a little more.

The truth is that Vickers, one way or another, formed the backbone to much of our heavy manufacturing. They made steel. They were armourers to the nation. They built ships, but then aircraft and submarines. They built railways locomotives and a tracked competitor to Caterpillar. But so much else. They were part founders of International Computers, the British answer to IBM. They made concrete making machinery and equipment for breweries. They made office equipment including duplicators.

I wrote about them in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World in chapters 5, 7, 12, 13 and 15 and in Vehicles to Vaccines in chapters 3, 6, 12, 14, 15, 16.

My books can of course also be borrowed from a public library if you don’t want to buy them. If however you do, here are the links:

Vickers also feature in my three books on Army Supply: Ordnance, War on Wheels and Dunkirk to D Day. Here is the link to that blog which has further details.

The image is of Ronald Weeks chairman of Vickers in the 1950s. Before that he was Deputy Chief of the General Staff in WW2 with responsibilities for army equipment. He also served in WW1 and then became one of the first non family directors of Pilkington.