The Industrial Reorganisation Corporation was an entity established by the Government of the United Kingdom to reorganise British industry.
The corporation was established by the First Wilson ministry in 1966 [1] with the objective of encouraging mergers to make British industries more competitive. [2] Its activities included facilitating the merger of GEC and AEI in 1966 and of the merger of that enlarged entity with English Electric in 1968. [3] It also facilitated the merger of British Motor Corporation with Leyland Motors in 1968 [3] and the merger of RHP, a ball bearing manufacturer, with Ransome & Marles in 1969. [4] It was wound up by the Heath ministry in 1970. [5] The Chairman throughout most of its life was Sir Frank Kearton. [6]
The British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC) was a UK-based vehicle manufacturer, formed in early 1952 to give effect to an agreed merger of the Morris and Austin businesses.
British Motor Holdings Limited (BMH) was a British vehicle manufacturing company known until 14 December 1966 as British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC). BMH was created as a holding company following BMC's takeover of both Jaguar Cars and the Pressed Steel Company in that year.
Geoffrey Robinson is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North West for 43 years, from 1976 to 2019. He was Paymaster General from May 1997 to December 1998, resigning after The bankruptcy of his company Trans Tec. It was revealed that he had lent his government colleague Peter Mandelson £373,000 to buy a house. From 1996 to 2008 he was the owner of the New Statesman, a centre-left weekly political magazine.
GKN Ltd was a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It was a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 and the birth of the Industrial Revolution. In 2018 GKN plc was acquired by Melrose Industries plc in a hostile takeover. Melrose divested GKN Automotive and GKN Powder Metallurgy in 2023 and listed them as Dowlais Group on the London Stock Exchange. GKN Aerospace continues to be owned by Melrose plc.
Sir James Gerald Douglas Howarth is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aldershot from 1997 until 2017, having been the MP for Cannock and Burntwood from 1983 to 1992.
John Diamond, Baron Diamond, PC, known as Jack Diamond, was a British Labour Party politician.
British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC) was a British hovercraft manufacturer that designed and produced multiple types of vehicles for both commercial and civil purposes.
Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies Limited was a major British agricultural machinery maker also producing a wide range of general engineering products in Ipswich, Suffolk including traction engines, trolleybuses, ploughs, lawn mowers, combine harvesters and other tilling equipment. Ransomes also manufactured Direct Current electric motors in a wide range of sizes, and electric forklift trucks and tractors. They manufactured aeroplanes during the First World War. Their base, specially set up in 1845, was named Orwell Works.
Pressed Steel Company Limited was a British car body manufacturing business founded at Cowley near Oxford in 1926 as a joint venture between William Morris, Budd Corporation of Philadelphia USA, which held the controlling interest, and a British / American bank J. Henry Schroder & Co. At that time the company was named The Pressed Steel Company of Great Britain Limited. It acquired Budd's patent rights and processes for use in the United Kingdom. Morris transferred his interest to his company, Morris Motors Limited.
The River Tyne Police was a police force established under the Newcastle upon Tyne Port Act 1845 which patrolled the River Tyne in England between 1845 and 1968.
The County Borough of Teesside was a county borough in the north-east of England, which existed for just six years. It was created in 1968 to cover the Teesside conurbation which had grown up around the various port and industrial towns near the mouth of the River Tees. The council was based in Middlesbrough, the area's largest town. The county borough was abolished in 1974 on the creation of the new county of Cleveland, which covered a larger area, with the county borough's territory being split between three of the four districts created in the new county. In 1971 it had a population of 396,233.
The Burntisland Shipbuilding Company was a shipbuilder and repairer in Burntisland, Fife, Scotland that was founded in 1918. In 1969 it was taken over by Robb-Caledon Shipbuilders, which in turn was nationalised in 1977 as part of British Shipbuilders.
Metal Industries, Limited was a conglomerate of mostly British engineering companies. It was founded in Glasgow in 1922 by Robert Watson McCrone. In 1953 its activities were described as "electrical and mechanical engineering manufacture and metal trading" In 1967, Aberdare Holdings of South Wales acquired a controlling interest in the group, but was quickly thwarted when M.I. created a large tranche of new shares which it sold to Thorn Electrical Industries, giving Thorn overall control of the company. The City Panel on Takeovers and Mergers referred to "abuses and inequities" that occurred during this chaotic takeover, among others at the time, but declined to recommend tougher regulations. A good history of the company's shipbreaking activities was published by the World Ship Society in 1992 in Ian Buxton's "Metal Industries: Shipbreaking at Rosyth and Charlestown".
Ransome & Marles Bearing Company Limited was the owner of a business making ball and roller bearings founded during the First World War to make bearings for aircraft and other engines. Before the war most bearings had been imported and most of those were from Germany.
Pollard Ball and Roller Bearing Company with its headquarters at Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire was a manufacturer of ball and roller bearings founded by John King. Formerly it had been known as Ferrybridge Industries and was originally a small family motor repair firm, Whitehouse Motor Industries, Ford dealers. Ferrybridge owned Pollard Bearings Limited.
John Howard Locke CB was a British civil servant in the Department of Employment; the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; the Cabinet Office; and the Ministry of Transport. He was instrumental in implementing and championing the British risk-based approach to workplace health, safety and welfare: through drafting the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and as the first director-general of the Health and Safety Executive, the body responsible for enforcing the provisions of the act.
Frank Schon, Baron Schon was an Austrian-born British industrialist and life peer, who served as Chairman of the National Research Development Corporation between 1969 and 1979.
The Gas Council was a UK government body that provided strategic oversight of the gas industry in England, Wales and Scotland between 1949 and 1972.
John Norman Romney Barber was a British businessman who held senior director positions at Ford of Britain, AEI and at British Leyland.
The Highland Brigade was an administrative brigade of the British Army from 1946 to 1968, that administered the regiments with recruiting grounds in the Scottish Highlands.