And with a photo of his grandfather riding a bicy- cle backwards on his 80th birthday (Gareth Tarr).
brother and continued his experiments. In 1906 he won first and second prizes in a competition organised by the Daily Mail, although rather meanly they only gave him half of the £50 prize money. But the publicity had brought him to the attention of both Charles Rolls and Cody. By December 1907 A V had built a full scale
model and moved to Brooklands. Throughout the next six months he gradually developed his model, using first a 9hp JAP engine and later a 50hp Antoinette. At the end of each working day he would often hide in a box in his shed when the Track was closed for the night so he could continue work, hence his somewhat limited diet. Despite his success in June, shortly after he was given notice by Track manager E de Rodakowski to leave Brooklands and moved to premises located in railway arches at Lea Marshes, Walthamstow. He built a new triplane which was very light, if lacking in power, and was able carry out more reliable flying, albeit over a limited distance as he risked crashing into the river. Alliott went into business with his brother
Humphrey and they formed A V Roe & Co. He had inherited a factory in Manchester that made braces and the basement of Brownsfield Mill was used to manufacture their first planes (not exactly ideal). In 1913 the company introduced the 504 model which was designed by A V and Roy Chadwick who was to prove a key employee. This carried out the world’s first bombing mission on 21st Novem- ber 1914. This raid was on the Zeppelin factory at Friedrichshafen and although not too much damage was done it generated great publicity. By the end of the war nearly 9,000 of the 504 model had been made at the factory in Newton Heath, many of which were used for training. The Post World War One economic downturn saw A V Roe sell a majority of his share in the
14
Neil Bailey (right) presents Eric with an Honorary BTM Life membership (Gareth Tarr).
company to Crossley and in 1928 he sold the remainder. Subsequently Avro was taken over by Armstrong Siddeley and the company went on to build many successful aircraft, including the robust Tutor bi-plane (a trainer), the multi-pur- pose Anson, the iconic ‘Dambuster’ Lancaster and awe-inspiring delta-winged Vulcan bomber (which first flew on the day Eric Verdon-Roe was born). The latter two aircraft are well-known but the Anson is one of those unsung heroes of the RAF which served for a long time. Introduced in 1935 they were much in use when my father did his National Service in the mid-1950s when every station had one as a multi-purpose workhorse, and they only ended service in 1968. Using the cash from selling his company, in
1928 A V Roe bought boat builders S E Saunders & Co, renaming it Saunders-Roe. The following year Alliott was knighted. Saunders-Roe concen- trated on flying-boats, which were a rather specialised product and built in limited numbers. One of the most extraordinary planes built by Saunders-Roe was the Princess airliner built after World War Two. It had 10 Bristol Proteus engines and could carry 104 passengers around 5,000 miles. But the war had seen an increase in airfields and seaplanes had had their day, only three prototypes were built of which only one ever flew. Sir A V Roe was Chairman of Saunders-Roe
until his death in 1958 aged 80. Sprightly to the end, Eric Verdon-Roe showed a picture of his grandfather riding a bicycle backwards (sitting on the handlebars) round his garden on the occasion of his 80th birthday. At the end of the talk BTM Chairman Neil
Bailey presented Eric with an Honorary BTM Life membership in recognition of the work he has done for the Museum over many years. Gareth Tarr
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