Jack Olding of
Hatfield,
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
,
England had a company (Jack Olding & Co. Ltd), which specialised in the import and modification of tanks and tractors during the
Second World War (notably being the sole importer into the UK of
Caterpillars).
He had a factory on the
A1 just to the north of Hatfield, at a site now known as Oldings Corner.
After the war, partly because of government pressure caused by a shortage of dollars, he made an ultimately unsuccessful gamble by relinquishing the Caterpillar agency for what proved to be the less than successful
Vickers Vigor tractor.
Indeed, the company is recognized as the only Caterpillar dealer to voluntarily give up the franchise. They were also distributors for the
Opperman Motocart.
of
Rolls-Royce recalls him as a ''"great sportsman, a charming host and an able administrator"'' with his main hobbies ''"racing"'' (he ran horses in the Grand National), ''"shooting and playing games of chance"''; but he was an unlucky punter, and Robotham learned not to follow his racing tips. The Vickers tractor used a
Rolls-Royce engine, and Oldings set up a worldwide service organisation for the tractor. But
Vickers-Armstrongs had to fly urgently-needed tractor parts around the world at great expense, and stopped production after making about a thousand tractors.
On his death the company passed to Scottish Land Development and became known as SLD Olding.
Jack Olding's real name was Henry John Douglas Olding.
See also
*
List of Road Junctions in the United Kingdom
*
Hobart's Funnies
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olding, Jack
English businesspeople
20th-century British businesspeople