User:Digitalbass/W. H. Allen Sons & Company Limited

W. H. Allen Sons & Company Limited was a British engineering company established in 1880 by William Henry Allen. In 1894 the company moved to Bedford and established the Queen's Engineering Works producing steam turbines, pumps and diesel engines until its closure in 2000.

History

 * 1880 - Company established as W. H. Allen and Co by William Henry Allen at York Street Works, Lambeth, London.
 * 1894 - Queen's Engineering Works constructed at Bedford; business moved there from Lambeth. Name changed to W. H. Allen Son and Company.
 * 1909 - The company received orders from the White Star Line for eight steam generating sets for the Olympic and the Titanic.
 * 1914 - At the outbreak of the First World War, W.H. Allens put their whole capacity at the service of the Royal Navy and over this period the number of people employed rose from 1,300 to 3,400.
 * 1918 - King George V and Queen Mary visited W.H. Allens on Thursday June 27th.
 * 1920 - Name changed to W. H. Allen Sons and Co Ltd.
 * 1945 - Wartime production at W.H. Allens exceeds £12m.
 * 1952 - Converted into public company.
 * 1961 - Company now organised around 5 product groups: Turbines, Pumps, Diesel, Electrical, and Gearing, each of which was self-contained.
 * 1968 - Merger of W. H. Allen, Sons and Co and Belliss and Morcom; new holding company known as The Amalgamated Power Engineering Company Ltd (APE) would be owned 60:40 by Allen's and Belliss's shareholders.
 * 1981 - APE taken over by Northern Engineering Industries plc (NEI).
 * 1989 - NEI merged with Rolls-Royce plc.
 * 2000 - Queen's Engineering Works plant closed.