Vickers-Armstrongs (Aviation) Ltd emerged from the reorganisation of Vickers (Aviation) Ltd and Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd in 1938. Within the new company, both the Vickers works and the Supermarine works continued to brand their products under their original names.
The parent company, Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, was formed by the merger of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927.
Vickers Limited had established its Aviation Department in 1911. In 1928, the Aviation Department was reconstituted as Vickers (Aviation) Limited. Around the same time, Vickers (Aviation) Limited acquired the Supermarine Aviation Works, which built the Spitfire fighter plane, renaming them the Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd.
In 1960 Vickers-Armstrong (Aircraft) Ltd was one of the companies involved in the formation of British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) formed as a result of the merger of Vickers-Armstrong (Aviation) Ltd, Bristol Aviation, English Electric and Hunting. The Vickers brand name was eventually dropped by BAC in 1965.
Born in St John's, Newfoundland in 1882, Elizabeth Mary Holloway (known as Elsie) was a renowned Newfoundland photographer. Her parents, Henrietta and Robert Holloway, fostered a creative and curious environment at home. Elsie's father taught her photography and in 1901 she travelled to England to continue her training.
She set up a photography studio in St John's with her brother Bert and became well-known for her portrait photography. At the outbreak of the First World War, the studio had lots of work photographing the newly enlisted soldiers who were about to set off for the Front. When Bert enlisted, Elsie managed the business on her own. Unfortunately, like so many others, Bert did not return.
In 1919, Elsie was there in St John's to record the preparations for Jack Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown's historic first non-stop transatlantic flight. Later, in 1932, she photographed Amelia Earhart at Harbour Grace before she set off on the first female transatlantic solo flight.
She continued running the studio until 1946 when she sold it and retired. She died aged 89 in 1971.
Date
c 1959
Scope and ContentCopy of a photograph originally taken in 1919 by Elsie Holloway. The image was taken during preparations for aviators Jack Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown's pioneering non-stop transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to Ireland. The photograph features Alcock and Vickers Ltd mechanics working on the Vickers Vimy aircraft.
Physical description3.27" x 3.81" photographic print, black & white, photographic paper. The image was taken of an original print pinned to a display board. A thumb tack is visible. The condition of the photograph is good.
First became interested in aviation whilst working at the Empress Motor Works, Manchester a year later he went to Brooklands to be a mechanic for the French pilot, Maurice Ducrocq. In 1914 joined the Royal Naval Air Service as an instructor, having held a flying certificate for two years. In 1916 he was posted to the Middle East, where he was a member of the Number 2 wing in the Eastern Mediterranean. Operating out of the base in Mudros, Alcock made many daring bombing raids.
He nearly lost his life in 1917 when his plane experienced engine failure and he and his crew were forced to ditch their plane at sea. When they swam ashore, they were taken prisoners by the Turks. After the armistice, he was released, and he left the Royal Air Force in March of 1919.
On June 14, 1919, Alcock, along with his navigator, Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown, left St. John's, Newfoundland and flew across the Atlantic, a distance of 1,960 miles to Clifden, Ireland in 15 hours and 57 minutes. For this record-breaking flight he was created Knight Commander Order of the British Empire, by George V at Buckingham Palace on June 21, 1919.
On December 18, 1919, Sir John Alcock, KBE, DSC, flew to Paris to exhibit a Vickers Viking amphibian aircraft. On his landing at Cote d'Evrard he sustained a skull fracture. He was taken to a hospital in Rouen, but he never regained consciousness and he died that very same day.
Born 23 July 1886 in Glasgow, but educated in Manchester. Brown served an apprenticeship with the British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company (later Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company Ltd) at Trafford Park, Manchester.
In January 1915 he gained a commission in the Manchester regiment and took part in the second battle of Ypres before being transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and trained as an observer. In November 1915 he permanently injured one leg when he was shot down over Valenciennes in France. He remained a prisoner of war of the Germans until he was repatriated in September 1917. He then worked in the aircraft production department of the Ministry of Munitions until the end of the war.
In 1919 Brown, visited Vickers of Weybridge seeking a post, shortly after the firm had decided to make an attempt on the first direct flight across the Atlantic for the prize of £10,000 offered by the Daily Mail. Brown was offered the position of navigator, alongside John Alcock as pilot.
After the flight, Brown returned to work for Vickers Ltd and then again for Metropolitan-Vickers. During the Second World War he returned to the Royal Air Force in order to train pilots in navigation and engineering, though he never flew again after Alcock's death in 1919.
He died at his home in Swansea on 4 October 1948 from an accidental overdose of veronal. A memorial to Alcock and Whitten Brown was erected in 1952, near the field from which they took off at St John's, by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. A memorial by William McMillan was erected at London Heathrow airport.
Steel makers, armaments and engineering manufacturers founded in Sheffield in 1828 by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor.
In 1863 the company moved to a new site in Sheffield on the River Don in Brightside. The company went public in 1867 as Vickers, Sons & Company and gradually acquired more businesses.
In 1911, the company name was changed to Vickers Ltd. The company expanded into aircraft manufacture with the formation of Vickers Ltd (Aviation Department).
In 1927, Vickers merged their armaments, shipbuilding and heavy engineering activities with Armstrong Whitworth to form Vickers-Armstrong Limited.
Conditions governing accessOpen access.
Conditions governing ReproductionThe original photograph is out of copyright. Copies may be supplied in accordance with current copyright legislation and Science Museum Group terms and conditions.
