Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe OBE, Hon. FRAeS, FIAS (26 April 1877 – 4 January 1958) was a pioneer English pilot and

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology ind ...

, and founder in 1910 of the

Avro AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broa ...

company."A. V. Roe biography" at verdon-roe.co.uk
/ref> After experimenting with model aeroplanes, he made flight trials in 1907–1908 with a full-size aeroplane at

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields ...

, near

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

in Surrey, and became the first Englishman to fly an all-British machine a year later, with a triplane, on the

Walthamstow Marshes Walthamstow Marshes, is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Walthamstow in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It was once an area of lammas land – common land used for growing crops and grazing cattle. In aviation histor ...

Early life

Roe was born in Patricroft, Eccles,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

, the son of Edwin Roe, a doctor, and Annie Verdon. He was the elder brother of

Humphrey Verdon Roe Humphrey Verdon Roe (18 April 1878 – 27 July 1949) was a British businessman, a philanthropist, aircraft manufacturer and the usually unacknowledged co-founder of Britain's first and most successful birth control clinic along with Marie Stopes, ...

. Roe left home when he was 14 to go to Canada where he had been offered training as a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ...

. When he arrived in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

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 the

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...

. He later tried to join the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

to study marine engineering at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, 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 SS ''Jebba'' 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 his Merchant Navy career as third engineer aboard the SS ''Ichanga''. It was during these voyages that he became interested in the possibility of building a flying machine, having observed the soaring flight of

albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pac ...

es.

Aviation career

In 1906 he applied for the job of Secretary of the

Royal Aero Club The Royal Aero Club (RAeC) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain, being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910. History The Aero Club was foun ...

. Although there were other better-qualified candidates, Roe's enthusiasm for aviation impressed

Charles Rolls Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident wit ...

, who interviewed him, and he was given the job. Shortly after this he was offered a job as a draughtsman by G.L.O. Davidson, who had devised a twin-rotored aircraft and had secured the financial backing of Sir William Armstrong of

Armstrong-Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and a ...

. This machine was being built in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

in the USA. 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 a ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' competition with a prize 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 Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

, he then began to build a full-size aeroplane, the Roe I Biplane, based on his winning model. He tested this at Brooklands in 1907–08, recording his first successful flight on 8 June 1908. After encountering problems with the management of Brooklands he moved his flight experiments to

, 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 a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term ...

commemorating his first successful flight (in July 1909) at the site. His aircraft, '' Avroplane'', a triplane, is preserved in London's Science Museum. A working replica of this aircraft was unveiled on 7 June 2008 at the

Brooklands Museum Brooklands Museum is a motoring and aviation museum occupying part of the former Brooklands motor-racing track in Weybridge, Surrey, England. Formally opened in 1991, the museum is operated by the independent Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd, a pri ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

. With his brother Humphrey, Alliott founded the A.V. Roe Aircraft Co. on 1 January 1910, later renamed Avro Aircraft, at Brownsfield Mill,

Great Ancoats Street Great Ancoats Street is a street in the inner suburb of Ancoats, Manchester, England. A number of cotton mills built in the early and mid-Victorian period are nearby, some of which have been converted into residential or office buildings, such ...

, Manchester. His most popular model, the 504, sold more than 8,300 units, mainly to the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

and later to the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

for use by training units. In 1928 he sold his shares and bought S. E. Saunders Co., and formed

Saunders-Roe Saunders-Roe Limited, also known as Saro, was a British aero- and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. History The name was adopted in 1929 after Alliott Verdon Roe (see Avro) and John Lord took a ...

Personal and political life

Roe was knighted in 1929. In 1933 he changed his surname to Verdon-Roe by

deed poll A deed poll (plural: deeds poll) is a legal document binding on a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an intention or create an obligation. It is a deed, and not a contract because it binds only one party. Etymology The ...

, adding the hyphen between his last two names in honour of his mother. He was a member of the

British Union of Fascists The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, f ...

and during the 1930s he was a supporter of Oswald Mosley. He was a great believer in

monetary reform Monetary reform is any movement or theory that proposes a system of supplying money and financing the economy that is different from the current system. Monetary reformers may advocate any of the following, among other proposals: * A return t ...

and thought it was 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 poet

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

, who also wrote for the Mosley press. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, two of his sons were killed in action whilst serving with the

. Squadron Leader Eric Alliott Verdon-Roe aged 26, in 1941 and Squadron Leader Lighton Verdon-Roe DFC aged 22, in 1943. Between 1928 and 1940 Verdon-Roe lived at Hamble House,

Hamble Hamble may refer to: * The River Hamble in Hampshire, England * Hamble aerodrome on the banks of the River Hamble. ** Hamble-Warsash Ferry, a ferry service on the River Hamble * Hamble-le-Rice, a village on the river Hamble, close to the city of Sou ...

, in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. He died on 4 January 1958 at St Mary's Hospital in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

. Roe was buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St Andrew, in Hamble, and there is a commemorative plaque to Roe and his sons inside the church. On 28 October 2011 a

green plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

was unveiled by

Wandsworth Council Wandsworth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Wandsworth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Wandsworth is divided into 20 wards, eac ...

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 the

International Air & Space Hall of Fame The International Air & Space Hall of Fame is an honor roll of people, groups, organizations, or things that have contributed significantly to the advancement of aerospace flight and technology, sponsored by the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Si ...

at the

San Diego Air & Space Museum San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDASM, formerly the San Diego Aerospace Museum) is an aviation and space exploration museum in San Diego, California, United States. The museum is located in Balboa Park and is housed in the former Ford Building, ...

. Verdon Roe was the grandfather of professional racing driver

Bobby Verdon-Roe Robert Geoffrey Verdon-Roe (born 21 November 1965 in Winchester, Hampshire) is a British professional racing driver who has raced in various formats of motor sport throughout his career. He has won Formula Renault, TVR Tuscan and Historic Form ...

Notes

References

* Holmes, Harry ''The Archives Photographs Series – AVRO'',Chalford, 1996 * Holmes, Harry ''Avro: The History of an Aircraft Company'', Marlborough: Crowood, 2004. * Jarrett, Philip ''Trials, Troubles and Triplanes – Alliott Verdon-Roe’s Fight To Fly'' Ringshall, Suffolk: Ad Hoc, 2007, * Jackson A.J. ''Avro Aircraft since 1908'' London: Putnam, 1990. * Ludovici, L.J. ''The Challenging Sky: The Life of Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe'' London: Herbert Jenkins, 1956 * Penrose, Harald ''British Aviation: the Pioneer Years'' London: Putnam, 1967 *

External links

BiographyVerdon-Roe family website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roe, Alliot Verdon 1877 births 1958 deaths Aviation pioneers People from Eccles, Greater Manchester English businesspeople English aerospace engineers Alumni of King's College London Knights Bachelor Officers of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society English fascists British Union of Fascists politicians Engineers from Lancashire