Armstrong’s Collaborators
Armorer Donkin
A rich and influential bachelor who befriended Armstrong’s parents, Armorer Donkin (1779–1851) tried to steer the young Armstrong towards a career in the law, his own profession. When this failed, he joined the young Armstrong in early business ventures including the Whittle Dene Water Co. and the Newcastle Cranage Co., the forerunner to W.G. Armstrong & Co.
As a member of the ancient Society of Hostmen, Donkin would throw regular parties – known as ‘ordinaries’ – to entertain local citizens and introduce them to visiting dignitaries from the literary, scientific, business and political worlds.
Donkin made Armstrong his heir, and when he died in 1851 he bequeathed him his Jesmond Park estate, part of the land that would eventually become the public park known as Jesmond Dene..
Stuart Rendel and the Rendel family
Stuart (1834–1913) was the third son of Armstrong’s mentor and friend James Meadows Rendel (1799–1956) , a leading hydraulics engineer. When Armstrong gave up his job as superintendent of the Royal Gun Factory at Woolwich and returned to Newcastle in 1863, it was Stuart who became his business manager and opened up foreign markets for Elswick products.
George Rendel (1833–1902), Stuart’s elder brother, an engineer who had inherited his father’s interest in hydraulics, served as managing director of Elswick Engine Works and went on to set up a branch of the Elswick company at Posillipo on the Bay of Naples. George was a particular favourite of Armstrong – who, having no children of his own, treated George as a son.
Hamilton Rendel (1843–1902), the youngest of the brothers, also an engineer employed by Armstrong, was chief designer of the hydraulic mechanism used to open and close the bascules of London’s Tower Bridge.
Thomas Sopwith
Thomas Sopwith (1803–1879) was crucial in bringing Armstrong to national prominence and helping him to launch his business at Elswick.
He was a Newcastle-born engineer, geologist and land-surveyor who became chief manager of the Beaumont lead mines at Allenheads in the Pennines, where he installed Armstrong’s early hydraulic machinery. He set up a national Mining Records Office.
Starting in 1822 and continuing until his death 57 years later, Sopwith kept a journal that survives today as 168 leather-bound volumes containing records of all the important scientific developments of the day, as well as Sopwith’s observations about his personal life and the activities of his friends and neighbours. It is a matchless source of information about the early adult life and exploits of William Armstrong. The original diaries are held at Newcastle University’s Philip Robinson Library.
Andrew Noble
Andrew Noble (1831–1915) was an army ballistics expert who was lured to the Tyne by Armstrong in the 1860s to join the newly formed Elswick Ordnance Works, rising to become managing director.
After Armstrong’s death in 1900, Noble succeeded him as chairman of what was then Armstrong Whitworth – destined to be, in the run-up to the First World War, the largest defence company in the world.
During his time in Newcastle, Noble and his family lived in Jesmond Dene, first at Deep Dene House (also known as Fisherman’s Lodge) and later at Jesmond Dene House, designed by John Dobson and extended by Shaw.
After retirement, Sir Andrew Noble, as he was by then, moved to his native Scotland, where he commissioned from Robert Lorimer the building of Ardkinglas, a gothic mansion on the northeast shore of Loch Fyne.
Richard Norman Shaw
Norman Shaw (1831–1912) was one of the most fashionable architects of the Victorian age, a proponent of what became known as the Old English style, incorporating medieval features such as half-timbering, massive chimneys and inglenook fireplaces.
Expanding on the earlier work of John Dobson, Shaw augmented Jesmond Dene Banqueting Hall, adding an integral gatehouse, along with a magnificent rstaircase and reception rooms. He went on to become the principal architect of Cragside, Armstrong’s home in Northumberland. He also modernised Jesmond Dene House for Sir Andrew Noble.
Shaw’s many other notable achievements include Bryanston School in Dorset, New Scotland Yard, and Bedford Park in west London, the first ‘garden city’ suburban development.
Joseph Wilson Swan
Joseph Swan (1828–1914) was a Newcastle chemist who invented the first effective incandescent lamp, or light bulb – whch was demonstrated for the first time in a public building at Newcastle’s Lit & Phil. Making use of Armstrong’s advances in the generation of electricity by water power, Swan tried out his invention at Cragside in 1880 – an event that led to Cragside’s becoming the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity.
Swan later formed a company with his great American rival Thomas Edison to provide electric lighting on a commercial scale to industrialising countries across the world.