of
deposited at
S Roberts, September 1991
Historical Manuscripts Commission
All enquiries about access to the records described in this list should be addressed to the Company Secretary. The General Electric Company plc. 1 Stanhope Gate. London W1A 1EH.
The records listed below are mainly those of four companies:
1. The General Electric Company Ltd was established when commerical electrical engineering in Britain was in its infancy, as the significance of electricity for lighting, heating and communication was recognised by government, manufacturers and consumers during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Gustav Byng set up a business in London for the sale of electrical goods about 1881. He was joined in 1886 by Hugo Hirst (afterwards Lord Hirst) who rapidly became the driving force within the firm. The General Electric Company Ltd was registered in 1889, and was reconstructed in 1900 with Hirst as managing director, an appointment that he held until his death in 1943. During the 1890s GEC manufactured electric bells and light fittings, but before the First World War had diversified into electric plant, dynamos, motors and telephones, and by 1924 the company claimed to be ‘manufacturers of everything electrical’. After the Second World War GEC, under the direction of Sir Michael Sobell and Lord Weinstock, consolidated its position as the leading British electrical and electronics group, absorbing a number of its main rivals.
2. Vulcan Foundry Ltd was established at Newton-le-Wllows, Lancashire in 1830, and in 1833 began to build railway locomotives, which remained its main business until 1970. It was registered in 1864 as the Vulcan Foundry Co Ltd (the ‘Co’ being dropped in 1898), and was absorbed in 1955 by the English Electric Co Ltd. which was itself acquired by GEC in 1968.
3. British Thomson-Houston Co Ltd was registered in 1896 as a reconstruction of an existing company holding rights to manufacture and sell electrical machinery and equipment under patent from the American Thomson-Houston Company. Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co Ltd acquired a controlling interest in the firm in 1928.
4. British Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co Ltd was registered in 1899 to acquire manufacturing rights from the American Westinghouse & Electric Company and Westinghouse Machine Company. It was purchased in 1917 by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon & Finance Co Ltd, which was taken over by Vickers Ltd in 1919. British Westinghouse then became Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co Ltd, which changed its name again to Associated Electrical Industries Ltd in 1929. AEI was acquired by GEC in 1967.
5. Also listed below are minute books of three subsidiaries of British Westinghouse/Metropolitan-Vickers: the Westinghouse Electric Co Ltd, which was registered in 1889 and went into voluntary liquidation in 1919; Metropolitan-Vickers Supplies Ltd, which changed its name to Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co Ltd when the existing company became Associated Electrical Industries Ltd; and Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co (Mediterranean) Ltd, which was wound up in 1931.
The Commission is most grateful to Mr NC Porter. Company Secretary of The General Electric Company plc, for granting access to these records, and to Miss JC Polley, Assistant Secretary, for providing facilities for them to be listed.
Typescript lists of archives of GEC at the Hirst Research Centre, Wembley, Middlesex and of several GEC subsidiaries outside London, are available for consultation in the Commission’s National Register of Archives. The locations of other records of the Vulcan Foundry are given in Company Archives: the survey of the records of 1000 of the registered companies in England and Wales (Business Archives Council 1986), pp45-46.
Printed annual reports, etc (1 volume) 1893-99
Memorandum and articles of association 1900
Directors’ report and accounts 1900-01
General meeting minute book no 1 1901-58
Memorandum and articles of association 1864
Special resolutions 1889-1953
Directors, and shareholders’ attendance book 1900-31
Notices of general meetings and Copies of printed letters relating to share issues and debentures (1 volume) 1889-1904
Mortgage debenture book including bonds, letters and receipts 1865-66
Register of bonds and mortgages 1865-97
British Thomson-Houston Co Ltd
Directors’ minute book no 1 1896-97
Directors’ minute book no 2 1897-1901
Directors’ minute book no 3 1901-22
Index to directors’ minutes (1 volume)
Executive committee minute book no 1 1901-06
Executive committee minute book no 2 1906-17
General meeting minute book no 2 1895-1920
Seal register (1 volume) 1903-26
Printed annual reports (1 volume) 1897-1931
Directors’ minute book no 1 1899-1903
Directors’ minute book no 2 1903-10
Directors’ minute book no 3 1910-15
Directors’ minute book no 4 1915-19
Directors’ minute book no 5 1919-25
General meeting minute book 1899-1920
Seal register no 1 1899-1909
Seal register no 2 1909-20
Printed annual reports (1 volume) 1900-28
Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co (Mediterranean) Ltd
Directors’ and general meeting minute book 1924-31
Metropolitan-Vickers Supplies Ltd
Executive committee minute book 1924-28
Memorandum and articles of association (1 volume) 1889
Directors’ minute book no 1 1889-1905
Directors’ minute book no 2 1905-19
General meeting minute book 1889-1921