Jack Olding
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Jack Olding of Hatfield,
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
had a company (Jack Olding & Co. Ltd), which specialised in the import and modification of tanks and tractors during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(notably being the sole importer into the UK of
Caterpillars Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...
). Before this Jack had several prestige Car Dealerships in Mayfair and other London locations. He had a factory on the A1 just to the north of Hatfield, at a site now known as either Oldings Corner or Caterpillar Island. In 1935, Fred Myers, already the sole UK importer for Caterpillar machines, under the banner of H. Leverton & Co. Ltd. , forged an alliance with his friend Jack Olding in agreement with Caterpillar USA, to split the UK Caterpillar Dealerships in two throughout England and Wales. Fred and Jack also formed a joint company, L.O. Tractors , which looked after Scotland. After the war, partly because of government pressure caused by a shortage of dollars, he made an ultimately unsuccessful gamble by relinquishing the Caterpillar agency for what proved to be the less than successful bid, having been offered Worldwide Rights to the new Vickers Vigor tractor. Indeed, the company is recognized as the only Caterpillar dealer to voluntarily give up the franchise. They were also distributors for the Opperman Motocart. From 1936 to 1950, they also distributed John Deere Tractors and Farm Equipment.
W. A. Robotham William Arthur Robotham (26November 18991980) was a Rolls-Royce executive involved in the development of Rolls-Royce cars, during World War II of tanks and tank engines, and post-war of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars complete with bodies and then o ...
of
Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
recalls him as a ''"great sportsman, a charming host and an able administrator"'' with his main hobbies ''"racing"'' (he ran horses in the Grand National), ''"shooting and playing games of chance"''; but he was an unlucky punter, and Robotham learned not to follow his racing tips. The Vickers tractor used a Rolls-Royce engine, and Oldings set up a worldwide service organisation for the tractor. But
Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...
had to fly urgently needed tractor parts around the world at great expense, and stopped production after making about a thousand tractors. On his death, the company passed to Scottish Land Development and became known as SLD Olding. Jack Olding's real name was Henry John Douglas Olding.


See also

* List of Road Junctions in the United Kingdom *
Hobart's Funnies Hobart's Funnies is the nickname given to a number of specialist armoured fighting vehicles derived from tanks operated during the Second World War by units of the 79th Armoured Division of the British Army or by specialists from the Royal En ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olding, Jack English businesspeople 20th-century British businesspeople