This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2020) |
Founded | 1828 |
---|---|
Defunct | 1927 |
Fate | Merged with Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company |
Successor | Vickers-Armstrongs |
Headquarters | Vickers House, Broadway, Westminster, London |
Subsidiaries | Metropolitan-Vickers Wolseley Motors Whitehead & Company John Brown & Company Canadian Vickers |
Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entire large ships, cars, tanks and torpedoes followed. Airships and aircraft were added, and Vickers jet airliners were to remain in production until 1965.
Financial problems following the death of the Vickers brothers were resolved in 1927 by separating Metropolitan Carriage Wagon and Finance Company and Metropolitan-Vickers, then merging the remaining bulk of the original business with Armstrong Whitworth to form Vickers-Armstrongs. The Vickers name resurfaced as Vickers plc between 1977 and 1999.