Alfred Yarrow

Sir Alfred Yarrow
Born	13 January 1842 East London
Died	24 January 1932
Nationality	British
Education	University College School
Engineering career
Discipline	Shipbuilding
Practice name	Yarrow Shipbuilders

Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, 1st Baronet, of Homestead (13 January 1842 – 24 January 1932) was a British shipbuilder who started a shipbuilding dynasty, Yarrow Shipbuilders.

Yarrow was born of humble origins in East London. His mother was of Spanish Sephardi Jewish background and his father was from an English Christian family; Yarrow was raised a Christian. He was educated at University College School.

After serving an apprenticeship in Stepney, he opened a yard — Yarrow and Hedley (a partnership) — at Folly Wall, Poplar on the Isle of Dogs in 1865 to build steam river launches. Yarrow's stern wheel steamers, designed with a shallow draft suitable for river navigation, were used in the early stages of the 1884 Nile Expedition.

Yarrow ventured into military vessels from the early 1870s, building torpedo boats for the Argentine and Japanese navies, among other customers. Then in 1892 he built the first two destroyers for the Royal Navy: Havock and Hornet of the Havock class. He struck up a strong friendship and correspondence with Lord Fisher ("Jackie Fisher"), and subsequently Yarrow Shipbuilders became a lead contractor for the Royal Navy for smaller, but almost always fast, boats.

By this time, the Hedley partnership had been dissolved (1875), and the company was known as Yarrow & Co, and around 1898 moved out of Folly shipyard to the nearby London Yard. It was to be a short-lived move, for less than 10 years later (1906–1908) Yarrow gradually moving his yard northwards to Scotstoun on the banks of the River Clyde on the west coast of Scotland, closing the London shipyard in 1908. An operation in Esquimalt, Canada, was purchased in 1913, renamed Yarrows Ltd., and after the Second World War sold to Burrard Dry Dock.

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