News Article

Lord Armstrong - The Life and Mind of an Armaments Maker

22/09/2011

ARMSTRONG: THE LIFE AND MIND OF AN ARMAMENTS MAKER

This is an account of a remarkable Victorian northern industrialist, a man whose life story was recognised even by contemporaries as representative of some of the central issues of his age. In addition to giving an account of his life, it tries to penetrate behind his obvious material successes in order to examine causes, consequences and problems. Although the general reticence of the age as well as the particular reserve of Armstrong himself means our insights are not as complete as one might hope, we can see now that, whereas his long career has usually been celebrated as a triumph, such a positive assessment needs serious modification. The reasons for this lie in the nature of his business.
From the mid nineteenth century onwards a considerable part of the immense and rapidly growing powers of the industrialised western societies was applied to the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. Some of the research and development work and the production of armaments occured in government arsenals, but much of it was undertaken by private companies, and for profit. The engineering works established in 1847 at Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne by a small partnership headed by William George Armstrong rapidly established itself as one of the world`s leading armaments firms. Along with continuing important interests in mechanical and civil engineering, this meant that Armstrongs created a vast Tyneside industrial complex. Its many thousands of employees and their dependents lived out their lives in the drab and dreary terraced rows which were built over the steep slopes above the dirty, smoky and noisy operations of the works. In stark contrast, for many decades the partners in the Armstrong concern - and later its shareholders scattered throughout Britain - made handsome profits from the labours of their workers. Armstrongs supplied the Royal Navy and the British Army, but it also sold weapons to the armed forces of any nation which could raise the purchase price.
From 1847 until his death in December 1900 William Armstrong headed this expanding and lucrative business. Like others he grew rich on the proceeds. He spent much of this wealth in building a spectacular house and shaping the expanding estate at Cragside, a place whose attractions thousands now enjoy through the enterprise of the National Trust. What was Armstrong`s attitude to the deadly trade whose profits enabled him to create such beauty? Could a man of his keen intelligence, one who was said to be quiet and kindly, really fail to realise the effects of the products of Elswick on human bodies, homes and happiness? In enjoying the comfort and peace of the Cragside library or amidst the springtime glories of its grounds could a man who had chosen to follow his business career wholly escape uncomfortable self-questioning? This book tries to throw light on these issues.
Ken Warren
5 August 2011
 

View the News Archive >