JOHN DAVENPORT SIDDELEY - HIS LIFE & TIMES

From the John Davenport Siddeley Memorial Lecture
delivered by Derek J S Ainscow, the grandson of John Davenport Siddeley, at the Coventry Techno Centre on 8th November 1999.

THE LIFE & TIMES OF JOHN DAVENPORT SIDDELEY 5th AUGUST 1866 - 3rd NOVEMBER 1953   Mr President, RR Heritage, ASOC, Guests, the Family: First of all I would like to say thank you to David Williams for providing me with a copy of the talk he gave some years ago on this very subject, also the late Ray Cook who wrote the Parkside Story published in 1988 and Rod Weaver whom I met at Mickleover last Wednesday. He (Rod) provided me with a treatise that he and Dick Teasdale have recently completed on World Transport Power from Coventry.
	John D. Siddeley

Just over two weeks ago Randle Audrey & I met Tom Smith at Bloxham, when he showed us various slides and view foils of Heritage activities for which I thank him, but more of that later.

We owe a special thanks to Martin Lomas of the Techno Centre for all his patience in setting up the audio & visual side of these talks.

Some months ago my cousin Randle rang me up asking me to contribute to this evening, somewhat to my own surprise I am here tonight doing just that.

I became aware that it was not really the life & times of J D Siddeley but the Times & Life.

Grandfather was born at Longsight Manchester in 1866, he was the son of William & Elizabeth. His father owned a Hosiery Mill in which he first started work at the age of 15, having been to school in Altrincham Cheshire were he grew up, and later at Beaumaris Anglesey where he worked in the mill with, as he put it, little pay. This encouraged him to train as an engineer attending Manchester Technical College and afterwards at Owens now Manchester University.

During his lifetime which stretched from 1866 to 1953, the change in the transport systems of the world has changed out of all recognition.

When he was born the horse and cart were predominant with the railways in their early days. At the time of his death in 1953 we had reached the age of supersonic flight. His contribution to these advances was considerable, starting with the Bicycle of which he was a prodigious exponent.

He was successfully racing bicycles for the Humber Cycle Company and in 1892 he joined them and became their only designer draughtsman. However this was not to last for long as he got head-hunted by Harvey du Cros of the Dunlop Tyre company in 1893.

At that time he moved to Ireland in the March, but not before getting married in Manchester to his wife Mabel They did not stop there long and arrived in Coventry in August 1894 in time for the birth of Randle's grandfather Cyril.

JDS was sent to Coventry by Dunlop to be their representative. Realising the potential of the pneumatic tyre for giving added comfort to wheeled vehicles he set up his own company in 1898 called the Clipper Tyre Company in Fleet Street Coventry importing continental tyres; this was possibly the first of the 'quick fit' tyre companies.

In order to publicise his products he undertook and organised a marathon cycle ride from Lands End to John O'Groats, his main part in this venture was to make sure everything ran smoothly rather than ride all the way himself, and he could be seen carrying his own design lightweight bicycle over his shoulder and brief case in his hand at various railway stations on route, either joining the ride or going on ahead to make sure accommodation was ready and sending telegrams to newspapers so as to get maximum publicity. It would indicate that he was 100 years before his time in being his own Spin Doctor!

I understand that before the company moved premises to Alma Street in 1901, they started to manufacture their own tyres. This was next door to Dunlop's fire engine house. At this time he decided that his future was in motor cars rather than tyres, so he sold the company to the Dunlop Tyre Company.

He then started to import Peugeot cars from France and formed the Siddeley Autocar Company in 1902, little did he realise that many years later two of Peugeot's factories would be based in Coventry.

	He built body work on imported Peugeot chassis and marketed them as Siddeleys, a sample of which (seen at left) has been restored by members of the Heritage Trust in recent years and kept in running order. It made a rather noisy appearance at the unveiling of the plaque outside this building having broken its silencer the previous weekend, I understand that it has now been repaired.

The company produced a range of motor cars based on the Peugeot chassis, at this point in time things became a bit complicated as he was selling Siddeleys but also working on designs for the Wolseley Tool & Motor Car Company, which was part of Vickers Sons & Maxim, using vertical engines instead of the then more conventional horizontally-opposed cylinders. He had approached Vickers through his friend Lionel de Rothschild

He introduced such things as shaft drive for small cars instead of the more cumbersome chain used up to then, he also made use of aluminium castings to help reduce weight.

Vickers were impressed with his designs and in those days innovations which we now take for granted. They made him an offer he could not refuse and so the company became Wolseley Siddeley, with him as Sales Manger.

This happy liaison continued for some time but in 1909 he left Wolseley Siddeley and joined the Deasy Car Company here at Parkside as works manager, he soon proved to be so good at his job that he was promoted to Managing Director.

He decided that the facilities were inadequate to produce cars in an economical way and totally reorganised the works over the next 12 months. During this period the opportunity was taken to redesign the range of cars and call them "JDS type Deasy" cars during 1910, using amongst other engines the sleeve-valve 'Silent Knight' engine. Apparently one journalist described the cars as "silent and inscrutable as the Sphinx". This appealed to my Grandfather, and he adopted as a mascot the Grecian version of the Egyptian monument, but in a "sitting position" which continued up until about 1932, at which time pity was taken on the poor animal and he was allowed to lie down. This continued in one form or another right up to 1960 when car production ceased, the 346 Sapphire Sphinx even had a couple of jets to help it along. But I digress.

His association with Deasy started a few years before in 1906 after S F Edge driving a Napier won the Gordon Bennett Trophy which required the ACGBI (Automobile Club of GB and Northern Ireland) to organise it the following year. This caused a bit of a problem as motor racing on public roads in GB had been banned, so the only option was for the race to take place in Ireland.

The Club had little or no idea how to go about it. Fortunately help was at hand in the form of the Midland Automobile Club - Chairman, one J D Siddeley. The Club, which claims to be the oldest Car club in GB, had recently set up Shelsley Walsh hill climb near Worcester and gained experience of motor racing. In conjunction with Deasy he set up an organisation to run the Gordon Bennett Trophy Race and from this developed the national governing body for British Motor sport - The RAC Competitions Committee as it is known today.

In 1912 the company name was changed to Siddeley Deasy better known in Coventry as "Diddle 'em Easy". At the same time Stoneleigh Motors was formed to cater for the light car market, more of this later.

Vickers got a bit upset at this, thinking that they held the rights to the Siddeley name, but as JDS pointed out to them in a one-page letter, when they took over his company he had never given them the rights to use his name and that they had no legal right to use the name Wolseley Siddeley either and would be hearing from his Solicitors if they continued to do so.

He had learned his lesson when he worked for Dunlop when he saw how Harvey du Cros induced John Boyd Dunlop to sign away the rights to use his own name.

During 1913 the company started to produce their own engines at Parkside. The London based Burlington Carriage Company was also acquired at this time, building the bodies at Coventry. The first Stoneleigh light cars were also built. Unfortunately on August the 4th 1914 war was declared on Germany and only two Stoneleigh's were produced at that time.

The factory was then turned over to war production, producing lorries and other vehicles. At this time the Royal Aicraft Factory at Farnborough lost its monopoly of design and production of aero engines and in Coventry Siddeley Deasy along with Humber, Daimler and Standard became aero engine producers. Siddeley acquired three of Farnborough's top men to help set up and run the operation.

During the war the work force increased in size enormously from 500 employees to 5,000 by November 1918. The area of the works increased to over 25 acres to accommodate the enormous aero engine production required.

At the end of the war in 1918 negotiations were opened with the Sir WG Armstrong Whitworth company of Newcastle-on-Tyne with a view to merging their two enterprises, this resulted in the formation of Sir WG Armstrong Whitworth Development company in mid 1919, later that year on the 1st November three announcements were made.

The first was that the Sir WG Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd had acquired a controlling interest in the Siddeley Deasy Motor Car Co Ltd and amalgamated it with the Armstrong Whitworth Motor Car Department at Parkside, then to be known as Armstrong Siddeley Motors Ltd.

The second that they would then manufacture The Armstrong Siddeley car as well as continuing aero engine production.

The third was the announcement of the Armstrong Siddeley 6-cylinder car of 29.5 hp. so starting a new era.

For this information I am indebted to Chris Massey, the ASOC Sphinx editor, for reproducing the original documents in the centre pages of the current issue, which I received last week.

The cars attracted a notable clientele, including the Duke of York who later became George VI, and Sir Malcolm Campbell who had a Siddeley Special Six in the 30's.

Business boomed and ASM built a number of armoured car prototypes in the 1920's which brought JDS into contact with Major Walter Wilson designer of the epicyclic transmission used in many military fighting vehicles. He had designed a compact form suitable for replacing the traditional crash gear box used in motor cars of the day.

	JDS, realising that this would make it easier for people to operate by a single press of the pedal rather than having to double de-clutch, took over the Vauxhall trial installation, testing being undertaken at ASM Cricklewood. It is possible that he may have been considering buying the ailing Vauxhall company, but General Motors beat him to it. GM laid claim to Wilson's patents, and it took five years to defeat them. When that happened Wilson & JDS set up Improved Gears Ltd in December 1928. They set up a development and manufacturing facility at Parkside, the company later became Self -Changing Gears Ltd. It is more commonly known as the Wilson pre-selective gear box, this was fitted to AS cars right up to the middle 50's with various refinements, the early ones had no clutch as such, only the brake bands which were used to engage the gears. A centrifugal clutch was introduced in the middle 30's, this enabled the driver to stop at a halt sign or traffic lights without having to disengage gear. The Daimler car company fitted them as well but used a fluid fly wheel for the same purpose. The Wilson box was the forerunner of today's Automatic gear boxes.
The restored A/S Boardroom at the Heritage Trust

I have not gone into details of the various cars, aero engines and aeroplanes produced by the company before JDS's retirement in 1937 because you can read all about them in the Parkside Story!

In 1926 when he was at last elected to the board of the parent company, he discovered that it was in a most unsatisfactory financial state. Whereupon at the first and only board meeting he attended, having previously gone to see his bank manager, he offered to buy his portion of the company which the Board accepted. The sum involved was a personal unsecured loan of £1,500,000.00. You can only imagine what the equivalent sum would be these days, perhaps Bill Gates might just manage to persuade his bank manager to make an advance of this magnitude.

So then he regained full control of a growing industrial empire, which included the acquisition in 1928 of the A V Roe Aircraft Company, this has a special significance for me as his godson Jim Kay of Lancashire was employed by A V Roe. His brother Derek became my Godfather and was known in the family as UDK.

There are a few more very short chapters in his life before retirement. There was the development of the Railcar before the War, which was seen in and around Coventry in 1936. The company also developed a flickerless cinema projector, but there appears to be no trace of this now.

I am coming to the end of my part in this, except some time last year the Midland bank in Jersey, were my Granny and Grandfather ended their days in 1953, passed a package to Randle, who passed it on to Audrey the family historian and scrutineer.
Caroline and I went over to lunch to go through the abundance of personal papers which had been languishing in their custody.

In amongst them were a lot of diaries which were given to him by A C Wickman some of which had his name on and some just a K with a coronet above, on looking through them I found an entry for the 18th of September 1944 saying 'Golf - Derek Caddy'. This momentous occasion took place when they were living on the Kenilworth road at Leamington, we cycled to Kenilworth Golf Club, he played a few holes, we then cycled back to his house. Not a bad feat for a 78 year old!

Click here for the text of an article on JDS that appeared in April 1932
in the The Coventry Herald.