• Nuffield Mechanizations Ltd

When Wolseley Motors Ltd of Ward End, Birmingham, was auctioned by the receivers in early 1927 it was purchased personally by William Morris, later Viscount Nuffield, for £730,000 as Wolseley Motors (1927) Ltd. Wolseley had begun aero engine development in 1929 and when Viscount Nuffield later sold Wolseley Motors on to Morris Motors in 1935, he decided to retain the aero engine development business as Wolseley Aero Engines Ltd. The directors of Wolseley Aero Engines Ltd were Viscount Nuffield (chairman), Oliver Boden, Herbert Clark, Andrew Walsh and Wilfred Hobbs. In 1935 Viscount Nuffield, at the request of prime minister Stanley Baldwin, took on the task of updating the mechanization of the army and the ground-based air force. Wolseley Aero Engine plant was used to manufacture tank engines and research units were established to develop ideas to improve the mechanization and mobility of the army. The 27-litre Liberty L-12 was adapted for tanks, but the government did not take up Nuffield’s offer to build the engines in his factory and in 1936 he notified the Air Ministry he would be closing his aero-engine operation. The development and production of Wolseley aero engines stopped in autumn 1936, although an advanced Wolseley radial aero engine of about 250hp was under development. In 1937 Wolseley Aero Engines Ltd purchased Nuffield Mechanizations Ltd as a going concern and subsequently changed its name to Nuffield Mechanizations & Aero Ltd, this was changed to Mechanizations & Aero Ltd in 1939 and again to Nuffield Mechanizations Ltd in 1942. The company was wound up in 1953.