WW1 Equipment manufacture enquiry

Good morning, I am a mature student *(56 years young) at Uni. and about to start my dissertation. My choice of work, I hope will relate to the amount of equipment made for the Army, Navy and our flying forces in the United Kingdom during the period 1914 to 1919, and in particular for the Westernfront. I would like to include in my study the type and number of component’s and constituent’s used to produce materials, material availability, production facilities, production units or factories and the type of products made in the UK, which in turn, how it effected or otherwise the war effort. Can anyone help point me in a general direction where this type of manufacturing information can be obtained, I can then hone in on specifics. *
Thank you, *Rusty Scott, *Scottish Borders.

[MikeW]

Rusty Scott,

are you looking at the whole picture or just aviation?

A couple of books that might help in a "general" sense are "The House of Gwynnes" and a dissertation on the company Clayton & Shuttleworth, the title of which eludes me and I'll have to look it up tonight. Gwynnes made aircraft engines, and Clayton & Shuttleworth had a go at everything from heavy engineering projects to complete aircraft. I'm sure I've seen a book on Ruston Proctor as well. There must be many others available, often as local history booklets.

I would suggest you are going to have to look at the Government departments responsible for regulating war production and that will mean putting aside a number of days to visit the National Archive (the old PRO - God bless her) at Kew in London, the amount of stuff you'll need will not be researched quickly.

I think you have taken on a huge project here - it might be an idea to narrow the scope a little.

Mike

[MikeW]

The C&S book that I was thinking of was Clayton & Shuttleworth and Marshall Aircraft by John Walls.

Clayton and Shuttleworth are famous for Steam Traction Engines, and the Shuttleworth side is the same Shuttleworth of the Old Warden collection of vintage aircraft and vehicles.

Another new book which might give you some inspiration is British Built Aircraft: Greater London, apparently the first in a series. In this book you will find the likes of furniture manufacturers converting to war production.

Mike

[Vigilant]

A good summary of British aircraft production in WWI is contained in J H Morrow's The Great War in the Air published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1993 (ISBN 1 85310 445 0). An excellent book that must have taken Mr Morrow years to research.

Best of luck with the dissertation.

Vig. (MA Edinbugensis)

Thank you both for the information. Yes I think it is a rather large project, however to be given the chance to even go to a university at my age makes me feel I have to make a good go of it. Like whisky I will get better as time goes on!!
Thank you for your direction.
Rusty Scott.