Elliott Bros (London) Ltd

William Elliott established his own first business at Tash Court but there is no confirming evidence of this, and equally, company literature from later in the century claims establishment in 1800, although 1804 is the more likely date. By 1854 his two sons (Frederick and Charles) were trading as Elliott Bros in London.

After almost one hundred years in Central London the business had grown too large, and in 1898 Elliott Bros took steps to move their manufacturing to a new green-field site at Lewisham in Kent. The factory was called ‘Century Works’ and the Company started operations there in 1900.

In 1916 the company was registered as a private limited company becoming known as Elliott Bros (London) Ltd.

By the mid 60’s Elliott Bros had grown internally and through licensing and acquisitions to be a substantial organisation of some 35,000 employees and over 100 specialised companies in almost every type of industry.  In July 1967 English Electric made an uncontested bid and the merger was said to create the largest technological complex in Europe with a combined turnover of £150M in the common business areas.  The following year  yet another merger occurred this time between the rapidly expanding GEC and English Electric.

Finally at the end of 1999 Marconi Avionics was absorbed into BAE SYSTEMS with the merger of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems. The name of Elliott Brothers (London) Ltd was acquired by BAE Systems and is to be seen on the long list of famous companies, forming the heritage of BAE Systems, on the wall in Lancaster House at the BAE Systems Head Offices at Farnborough.

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