Alliott Verdon Roe | |
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 Alliott Verdon-Roe circa 1910 | |
| Born | Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe (1877-04-26)26 April 1877 Patricroft,Eccles, England |
| Died | 4 January 1958(1958-01-04) (aged 80) Portsmouth, England[1] |
| Resting place | St Andrew's Church, Hamble |
| Occupation | Aircraft manufacturer |
| Known for | British aviation pioneer |
| Relatives | Humphrey Verdon Roe (brother) Harry Stopes-Roe (nephew) |
Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon RoeOBE,Hon. FRAeS, FIAS (26 April 1877 – 4 January 1958) was a pioneer English pilot andaircraft manufacturer, and founder in 1910 of theAvro company.[2] After experimenting with model aeroplanes, he made flight trials in 1907–1908 with a full-size biplane atBrooklands, nearWeybridge in Surrey,[3] and officially became the first Englishman to fly an all-British machine a year later, with a triplane, on theWalthamstow Marshes.
Roe was born inPatricroft,Eccles,Lancashire, the son of Edwin Roe, a doctor, and Annie Verdon. He was the elder brother ofHumphrey Verdon Roe.[4] Roe left home when he was 14 to go to Canada where he had been offered training as asurveyor. When he arrived inBritish Columbia he discovered that a slump in the silver market meant that there was little demand for surveyors, so he spent a year doing odd jobs, then returned to England. There he served as an apprentice with theLancashire & Yorkshire Railway. He later tried to join theRoyal Navy to study marine engineering atKing's College London, but, although he passed the technical and mathematics papers, he was rejected for failing some of the general subjects. As well as doing dockyard work, Roe joined the ship SSJebba of the British & South African Royal Mail Company as fifth engineer on the West African run. He went on to serve on other vessels, finishing hisMerchant Navy career as third engineer aboard the SSIchanga. It was during these voyages that he became interested in the possibility of building a flying machine, having observed the soaring flight ofalbatrosses.
In 1906 he applied for the job of Secretary of theRoyal Aero Club. Although there were other better-qualified candidates, Roe's enthusiasm for aviation impressedCharles Rolls, andStanley Spooner who interviewed him, and he was given the job.[5] Shortly after this he was offered a job as adraughtsman by G.L.O. Davidson, who had devised a twin-rotored aircraft and had secured the financial backing of Sir William Armstrong ofArmstrong-Whitworth. This machine was being built inDenver in the United States. After disagreements about the design of the machine and problems with his salary, Roe, who had been sent back to Britain to deal with patenting the design, resigned.
He then began to build a series of flying models, and won aDaily Mail competition with aprize of £75 for one of his designs in 1907. With the prize money and the use of stables at his brother's house in West Hill,Putney, he then began to build a full-size aeroplane, theRoe I Biplane, based on his winning model. He tested this at Brooklands in 1907–08, later claiming to have made his first successful flight on 8 June 1908.[6] After encountering problems with the management of Brooklands he moved his flight experiments toWalthamstow Marshes, where he rented space under a railway arch at the western end of the viaduct. Despite many setbacks, Roe persisted with his experiments and there is now ablue plaque commemorating his first successful flight (in July 1909) at the site. His aircraft,Avroplane, a triplane, is preserved inLondon's Science Museum.[7] A working replica of this aircraft was unveiled on 7 June 2008 at theBrooklands Museum inSurrey.
With his brotherHumphrey, Alliott founded the A.V. Roe Aircraft Co. on 1 January 1910, later renamedAvro Aircraft, at Brownsfield Mill,Great Ancoats Street, Manchester.[2] His most popular model, the504, sold more than 8,300 units, mainly to theRoyal Flying Corps and later to theRoyal Air Force for use by training units. In 1928 he sold his shares and bought S. E. Saunders Co., and formedSaunders-Roe.
Roe was knighted in 1929. In 1933 he changed his surname to Verdon-Roe bydeed poll, adding the hyphen between his last two names in honour of his mother.[8]
He was a member ofOswald Mosley'sBritish Union of Fascists in the 1930s.[9] He was a believer inmonetary reform and thought it wrong that banks should be able to create money by "book entry" and charge interest on it when they lent it out. In this respect he shared the same enthusiasm for reform as the American poetEzra Pound, who also wrote for the Mosley press.
During theSecond World War, two of his sons were killed in action while serving with theRoyal Air Force. Squadron Leader Eric Alliott Verdon-Roe aged 26, in 1941,[10] and Squadron Leader Lighton Verdon-RoeDFC aged 22, in 1943.[11]
Between 1928 and 1940 Verdon-Roe lived at Hamble House inHamble-le-Rice,Hampshire.[12]
Verdon-Roe died on 4 January 1958 at St Mary's Hospital inPortsmouth.[1] and was buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St Andrew in Hamble; there is a commemorative plaque to Roe and his sons inside the church.[13]
On 28 October 2011 agreen plaque was unveiled byWandsworth Council and members of the Verdon-Roe family at the site of Roe's first workshop at West Hill, Putney.
In 1980, Verdon-Roe was inducted into theInternational Air & Space Hall of Fame at theSan Diego Air & Space Museum.[14]
Verdon Roe was the grandfather of professional racing driverBobby Verdon-Roe.[15]
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