Old Photograph Beardmore Works Dalmuir Scotland

Old photograph of Beardmore Works in Dalmuir, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. William Beardmore and Company was a Scottish engineering and shipbuilding conglomerate based in Glasgow and the surrounding Clydeside area. It was active from 1886 to the mid 1930s 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. William Beardmore, born 16 October 1856, died 9 April 1936, was an Anglo-Scottish industrialist. He was born in Deptford, London, England, where his father, also William Beardmore, was a mechanical engineer. In 1861 his family moved to Glasgow, where his father was co-founder of the Parkhead Forge, a steel mill and supplier to the thriving shipbuilding and railway industries on the Clyde in the east end of the city. He was educated at the High School of Glasgow and Ayr Academy. When he was fifteen, he began an apprenticeship at Parkhead, while taking night classes at Anderson's University. On completing his apprenticeship in 1877 he enrolled at the Royal School of Mines in South Kensington, London. His father died shortly afterwards and the retirement of the third business partner saw William's uncle Isaac become sole proprietor. William became a junior partner in 1879 and on his uncle's retirement seven years later he became the sole proprietor of the business. Over the years he diversified his business to include the production of vehicles, armaments, including shells and tanks, aircraft, airships and motorcycles. In 1900, he purchased land on the north bank of the Clyde at Dalmuir, adjacent to the famous yard of John Brown & Company at Clydebank. This he developed into one of the largest and most modern shipyards in the world, but the post-war decline in shipbuilding saw this yard close in 1936. Some of the ships built by Beardmore were the SS Warilda, later the HMAT Warilda, for the Adelaide Steamship Company, the dreadnought HMS Conqueror, the battleship HMS Ramillies, and the first through-deck aircraft carrier HMS Argus. Beardmore sponsored Ernest Shackleton's 1907 Antarctic expedition, and it named the Beardmore Glacier after him. He was a member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Iron and Steel Institute, and the Institution of Shipbuilders and Engineers in Scotland. He was also chairman of the Industrial Welfare Society. Beardmore was created a Baronet, of Flichity in the County of Inverness, in 1914 and raised to the peerage as Baron Invernairn, of Strathnairn in the County of Inverness, in the 1921 New Year Honours. Lord Invernairn, as he was then known, died at his home in Strathnairn, Inverness-shire of heart failure on 9 April 1936, aged 79. The baronetcy and barony died with him. Blog post of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



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