William Beardmore, 1st Baron Invernairn

William Beardmore ( born October 16, 1856 in Greenwich, † April 9, 1936 in Flichity, Inverness- shire ) was a Scottish entrepreneur.

Life and work

After training as a mechanical engineer Beardmore first worked in his father's company and was produced partner in a successful company, the steam boiler for railways and ships after his death.

1899 Beardmore acquired a shipyard in Govan on the Clyde in Glasgow, which developed under his leadership quickly became the largest industrial group in Scotland with over 40,000 employees.

There followed a further expansion with the acquisition of a car factory, a steel mill and another shipyard, and so the William Beardmore and Company, the largest arms supplier of Great Britain in the years before the First World War.

1907 funded Beardmore the Antarctic expedition of Ernest Shackleton, the a glacier named after him ( the Beardmore Glacier ).

1921 Beardmore was appointed 1st Baron Invernairn.

After handing over his company in the late 1920s to the Beardmore withdrew to his house in the Highlands and died childless in 1936 in Flichity, where he was buried.