Vincent Andrew Wardell (1903–1990) was an Australian businessman, manufacturer and company director. In 1939 he was appointed assistant manager at Lysaght's steel works in

Port Kembla, New South Wales Port Kembla is a suburb of Wollongong 10 km south of the CBD and part of the Illawarra region of New South Wales. The suburb comprises a seaport, industrial complex (one of the largest in Australia), a small harbour foreshore nature rese ...

and by 1944 was both its manager and one of its directors.Glenn Mitchell, 'Wardell, Vincent (Aloysius) Andrew (1903–1990)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wardell-vincent-aloysius-andrew-15866/text27067, published first in hardcopy 2012, accessed online 6 June 2016

Biography

Born in

St Kilda, Victoria St Kilda is an inner seaside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, southeast of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Port Phillip Local government areas of Victoria, local government area. St Kilda recorded a ...

, Wardell was a member of a large family of ten children, six boys and four girls. His parents were Edward Stanfield Wardell and Georgina Mary, née Brady. He attended St. Joseph's CBC, North Melbourne in 1914 and 1915 with his brother Gerald before moving to

Castlemaine, Victoria Castlemaine ( , Variation in Australian English, non-locally also ) is a town in west central Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, in the Goldfields region of Victoria, Goldfields region about 123 kilometres (76 miles) northwest by road ...

. Wardell's father, a Deputy Governor at the

Melbourne Mint The Melbourne Mint, located on the corner of William and La Trobe Streets in Melbourne, Australia, was first established as a branch of the British Royal Mint, opening in 12 June 1872. The main building houses the administration offices, a ...

, had retired in 1915 and had moved into the property known as ''Clontarf'' located just outside the Castlemaine city centre. On relocating to the country Wardell continued his education at Castlemaine High School. Wardell did well in his secondary school work and in 1922 he was awarded a Donovan Bursary to continue his studies at

Newman College (University of Melbourne) Newman College is an Australian Roman Catholic co-educational residential college affiliated with the University of Melbourne. It houses about 225 undergraduate students and about 55 postgraduate students and tutors. The college is named af ...

. At the end of his first year he achieved a pass in Science, with second class honours in Geology and third class honours in Chemistry.

Business ventures

Like his grandfather,

William Wardell William Wilkinson Wardell (1823–1899) was a noted architect who practiced in the second half of the 19th century, and is best known for a series of landmark buildings in Australia in Melbourne and Sydney. Following a successful career in ...

, Vincent was a prodigious worker, anxious to get ahead and make a name in professional circles. Wardell gained a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in 1926 from his time at university and began operating as a

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

, sharing rooms in

Collins Street, Melbourne Collins Street is a major street in the Melbourne central business district, central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in the first survey of Melbourne, the original 1837 Hoddle Grid, and soon became the most ...

with his brother Joseph, a respected wool buyer. The position was short lived and by 1930 he and his brother Gerald had moved to Tasmania to work in a zinc factory. In 1931 he moved to New South Wales and began work at the Lysaght works in Newcastle now known as Lysaght. As a manager with Lysaght, Wardell formed a business partnership with

Evelyn Owen Evelyn Ernest Owen (15 May 1915 – 1 April 1949) was an Australian who developed the Owen gun, which was used by the Australian Army in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Early life Evelyn Owen was born on 15 May 1915 in Wo ...

to develop a lightweight submachine gun for the Australian Army, the

Owen gun The Owen gun, known officially as the Owen machine carbine, was an Australian submachine gun that was designed by Evelyn Owen in 1938. The Owen was the only entirely Australian-designed and constructed service submachine gun of World War II. It ...

Later life

Wardell was twice married. In 1933 he wed Phyllis Sydney Wansey at Newcastle, but was divorced in 1952. Margaret Florence Lord, a well known interior designer, became his second wife in 1955. Throughout his later life Wardell maintained a keen interest in business affairs until his death in 1990.

References

External links

Owen machine carbine / submachine gun

Bibliography

* ''The Owen gun'', 1991, Wayne Wardman * ''The Owen gun files: An Australian wartime controversy'', 1994, Kevin Smith {{DEFAULTSORT:Wardell, Vincent Steel industry World War II infantry weapons of Australia 1903 births 1990 deaths 20th-century Australian businesspeople People from Castlemaine, Victoria Businesspeople from Victoria (state) University of Melbourne alumni Australian people of English descent People from St Kilda, Victoria Businesspeople from New South Wales People educated at St Joseph's College, Melbourne