Alexander Duckham (11 March 1877 – 1 February 1945) was an English
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...
and businessman, best known for the development of machine
lubricants. The son of an engineer, after university he specialised in lubrication, working briefly for Fleming's Oil Company before founding his own company, Alexander Duckham & Co, in Millwall in 1899.
By the outbreak of World War I, he was an authority on technological problems relating to lubrication, and the company went public in about 1920, relocating from Millwall to Hammersmith. By the time he died in 1945, Duckhams had assumed a dominant position for the supply of lubricants and corrosion inhibitors to the motor industry in Britain and other markets. A new manufacturing plant was opened in Staffordshire in 1968, and soon thereafter the company was taken over by
BP.
Early career
Duckham was born in
Blackheath, London
Blackheath is an area in Southeast London, straddling the border of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham. It is located northeast of Lewisham, south of Greenwich, London, Greenwich and southeast of Charing Cross, ...
,
the eldest son of a
Falmouth-born mechanical and civil engineer, Frederic Eliot Duckham (1841 - died 13 January 1918 in Blackheath), who had patented improvements in governors for marine engines and invented a 'Hydrostatic Weighing Machine'.
His mother was Maud Mary McDougall (1849-1921), sister of
John McDougall of the flour-making family, which had a mill at
Millwall Dock
Millwall Dock is a dock at Millwall, London, England, located south of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs.
History
The scheme was developed speculatively by a partnership of John Kelk and John Aird & Co.'The Millwall Docks: The docks', in Su ...
. His younger brother,
Arthur Duckham, became one of the founders of the
Institution of Chemical Engineers, and its first President.
Upon leaving university in 1899, Alexander Duckham, who had worked briefly for Fleming's Oil Company,
was encouraged by engineer Sir
Alfred Yarrow
Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, 1st Baronet, (13 January 1842 – 24 January 1932) was a British shipbuilder who started a shipbuilding dynasty, Yarrow Shipbuilders.
Origins
Yarrow was born of humble origins in East London, the son of Esther ...
, who lived nearby (Yarrow occupied
Woodlands House in Mycenae Road,
Westcombe Park
Westcombe Park is a largely residential area in Blackheath in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, South East London, England. It is bounded by the main London-Dartford railway line to the north, the Blackwall Tunnel southern approach to the east, ...
for some years from 1896, close to the Duckham family home in Dartmouth Grove, Blackheath) to specialise in the study of
lubrication, and was introduced to engineering firms with lubrication problems.
Duckham established Alexander Duckham & Co in
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...
in 1899,
and gradually assembled a team of engineers and chemists to whom he could delegate research work, freeing him to focus on lubricant production.
Early customers included car dealer and racing driver
Selwyn Edge
Selwyn Francis Edge (1868–1940) was a British businessman, racing driver, cyclist and record-breaker. He is principally associated with selling and racing De Dion-Bouton, Gladiator; Clemént-Panhard, Napier and AC cars.
Personal life
Edge ...
who called weekly at Duckham's Millwall works for an oil change; Duckham, who bought his first car in 1899, also used to accompany Edge to
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfie ...
.
Yarrow and
Lord Fisher
John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, (25 January 1841 – 10 July 1920), commonly known as Jacky or Jackie Fisher, was a British Admiral of the Fleet. With more than sixty years in the Royal Navy, his efforts to reform the service helped ...
subsequently encouraged Duckham to focus on sourcing raw materials for lubricants. From 1905 he helped pioneer the development of the
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
oil fields, including a deposit near
Tabaquite Tabaquite is a town in central Trinidad, north of Rio Claro and west of the Navet Dam.
Overview
Miss Trinidad and Tobago 2015 Kimberly Singh hails from Tabaquite.
Tabaquite is a primarily rural area and suffers from infrastructural neglect. ...
of high-class
crude oil suitable as a base for the preparation of lubricants,
establishing a private company, Trinidad Central Oilfields, in 1911.
The discovery and development of such lubricants was timely, coinciding with the evolution of
internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...
s which demanded more advanced lubrication.
As well as being a successful businessman, Duckham was an early aviation pioneer and close friend of cross-channel aviator
Louis Blériot – he paid for the stone memorial in
Dover marking the place where Blériot landed in 1909 to complete the first flight across the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
in a heavier-than-air aircraft,
and 25 years later hosted a dinner at London's
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August ...
marking the anniversary of the flight.
Duckhams
The outbreak of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in 1914 heightened the focus on mechanical efficiency, and the Duckham company was already established as the highest authority on technological problems in matters of lubrication.
The company went public (c. 1920) soon after the war finished,
and relocated from Millwall to
Hammersmith in 1921.
By the time, Alexander Duckham died in 1945 (being succeeded as company chairman by his son Jack), Duckhams had assumed a dominant position in supply of lubricants and corrosion inhibitors to the motor industry and other markets. Behind
Castrol
Castrol is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The name ''Castrol'' was originally just the brand name for co ...
, by 1967, it was regarded as the largest independent lubricating oil company in the UK and the third largest supplier of engine oil to motorists, producing the first multigrade oil for motorists.
To cope with demand, a new manufacturing plant was opened in
Aldridge
Aldridge is an industrial town in the Walsall borough, West Midlands, England. It is historically a village that was part of Staffordshire until 1974. The town is from Brownhills, from Walsall, from Sutton Coldfield and from Lichfield. ...
,
Staffordshire in 1968, shortly before the company was acquired by
BP in 1969.
Duckhams' Hammersmith site closed in 1979, was acquired by
Richard Rogers' architects practice (today
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Rogers may refer to:
Places
Canada
*Rogers Pass (British Columbia)
* Rogers Island (Nunavut)
United States
* Rogers, Arkansas, a city
* Rogers, alternate name of Muroc, California, a former settlement
* Rogers, Indiana, an unincorporated communit ...
) in 1983, and was redeveloped to become the
Thames Wharf Studios and
the River Café.
Family
He married Violet Ethel Narraway in 1902, and they had five children, all born in Greenwich: Alec Narraway Duckham (born c. 1904); Millicent A. M. Duckham (c. 1905); Joan Ethel Duckham (c. 1906); Jack Eliot Duckham (c. 1908);
and Ruth Edith
Duckham (born 1918).
The family lived for some years from 1907 in
Vanbrugh Castle
Vanbrugh Castle is a house designed and built by John Vanbrugh for his own family, located on Maze Hill on the eastern edge of Greenwich Park in London, to the north of Blackheath, with views to the west past the Old Royal Naval College at Gre ...
, close to
Greenwich Park
Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London. One of the Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed (in 1433), it covers , and is part of the Greenwich World Heritag ...
. In 1920, Duckham donated the house (and another property, Rooks Hill House in
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the traditio ...
) to the
RAF Benevolent Fund
The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund (RAF Benevolent Fund or RAFBF) is the Royal Air Force's leading welfare charity, providing financial, practical and emotional support to serving and former members of the RAF – regardless of rank – as wel ...
to be used as a school for the children of
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
personnel killed in service. Vanbrugh Castle was later sold after the number of pupils declined; sale proceeds were used to educate RAF children, with funds later (1997) transferred to a charitable trust, the Alexander Duckham Memorial Schools Trust.
References
Note
Citations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duckham, Alexander
20th-century British chemists
English chemists
1877 births
1945 deaths
Tribologists
Lubrication