Fate | Merged with General Electric Company plc |
---|---|
Successor |
General Electric Company plc Spin-offs: British Aircraft Corporation International Computers Limited |
Founded | December 1918 | (as The English Electric Company Limited)
Defunct | September 1968 |
Headquarters | Strand, London, England, U.K. |
Subsidiaries |
D. Napier & Son (1942–) The Marconi Company (1948–) Vulcan Foundry (1955–) Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns (1955–) English Electric Aviation (1958–) English Electric Leo Marconi (1964–) |
The English Electric Company Limited was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the armistice of World War I at the end of 1918. It was created to make one of Britain's three principal electrical manufacturing concerns by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, had been making munitions, armaments and aeroplanes.
It initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers, railway locomotives and traction equipment, diesel motors and steam turbines. In the end its activities expanded to include consumer electronics, nuclear reactors, guided missiles, military aircraft and mainframe computers.
English Electric's operations were merged with GEC's in 1968, the combined business employing more than 250,000 people.
Two English Electric aircraft designs became landmarks in British aeronautical engineering; the Canberra or B-57 and the Lightning. In 1960, long before the merger with GEC, English Electric Aircraft (40%) merged with Vickers (40%) and Bristol (20%) to form British Aircraft Corporation.
Aiming to turn their employees and other assets to peaceful productive purposes, the owners of a series of businesses decided to merge them forming The English Electric Company Limited in December 1918.