BIG FIRM IS HARD HIT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 793, 14 October 1929, Page 9

BIG FIRM IS HARD HIT

HEAD OF BEARDMORE’S RUINED COMMITTEE IN CONTROL Australian and N.Z. Press Association LONDON, Saturday. The Bank of England and several joint stock banks Interested in the famous Clydeside shipbuilding and steel-making firm of William Beardmore and Company have appointed Sir James Cooper and Mr. Frank Hodges to represent them on the control committee of the firm, whose capital was drastically written down recently. The recent raising of- the bank rate was followed by an increase in the amount of interest on the hanks’ loan, to the firm to the extent of £20,000 a year. During the war Beardmore's was one of the largest armament firms in Britain and employed 40,000 hands. In recent years its unemployed have been upward of 3,000. Glasgow city circles express the opinion that the present reorganisation will enable the firm to turn the corner. Lord Invernairn, former head of the firm, lost his entire fortune in attempting to save the firm and is now penniless and broken, by the post-war shipbuilding slump. William Beardmore, Lord Invernairn, who will be 73 years of age next Wednesday, started work at the age of 14 years as an apprentice in the Parkhead Forge, near Glasgow, and at 29 years of age was given sole management of the firm, which he expanded into the famous engineering shipbuilding, and armament firm that now bears his name. He was given a barony in 1921. \