Life History

19th Nov 1882	Born in London, Clapton
5th May 1883	Baptised in St John's, Walworth
9th Apr 1910	Married Mabel May Hyde in St. Albans, Teddington.
6th Nov 1911	Birth of daughter Barbara Cecelia Drewry in Yardley, West Midlands.
8th Jan 1913	Birth of daughter Christine Hilda May Drewry in Hitchin, Bedfordshire.
14th Dec 1952	Died in Letchworth.

Notes

Designer/inventor; Locomotive and equipment builder.

In 1901 census, aged 18; occupation: Mechanical Engineer

The First Railcar

(Click on the image for a full size picture).

In his book 'Municipal Refuse Collection Vehicles', Barrie C. Woods suggests that James had "risen to fame with his petrol-driven railcar." Is this the railcar?

The cutting (on the right) showing the obituary of James S. Drewry from a local Letchworth newspaper has an unfortunate fold where the text from the reverse side shows through. The owner of the cutting believes that the text says: "In 1903, at the early age of 21 he designed and manufactured the Drewry railcar .. which he later sold to the B.S.A. Co. of Birmingham".

I believe the above photograph is from 1904. Alfred (furthest from the camera) said he was sixteen when the photo was taken.
The same year, James (the older of the brothers) took the railcar on the left ('Trolley No. 1') to South Africa where he worked on the proposed Cape-to-Cairo railroad.
See photos in James Drewry in Africa, 1904-1906.
The photos have captions dated 1904, 1905 and 1906. In one shot of James in Bulawayo, the date has been changed from 1905 to 1908. This could suggest he made more than one trip to Africa.

Recorded production of Drewry railcars began in 1905, possibly while James was in Africa. Clearly, trolley number 1 and the railcar in the 1904 photo are prototypes.

Shelvoke & Drewry

The following is derived from 'Kaleidoscope of Shelvoke & Drewry' by Nick Baldwin & William Negus, 1980, (ISBN 0906116 17):
"James met Harry Shelvoke when Chief Engineer of Lacre.
Earlier he had founded the Drewry Rail Car Co., and claimed to be the originator of the petrol railcar, having run the line from Cairo to the Cape for a time, and having built his first machine at Teddington in 1902. (see above)
Subsequent designs were built by BSA, where he worked until 1911. He was a partner in Baguley-Drewry.
At Lacre he designed their famous three wheeled sweeper.
Drewry was described as having the air of a slightly 'absent minded professor' type. He was a greatly respected engineer".
A 1920 version of the Lacre Roadsweeper is at the Museum of Transport at Stondon, near Henlow, Bedfordshire.

(Picture of a Shelvoke & Drewry Dust Cart)

"James Drewry would come to the assembly benches to mull over design and production problems with favoured workmen over a four ounce tin of his favourite Afrikander tobacco." The development of a power broom is thought to be the cause of friction between James Drewry and Harry Shelvoke. In the mid 1930's Drewry left for a senior position with Hands Trailers (also of Letchworth).
For a while in World War II, James Drewry crossed the road to act as technical consultant on the tank trailers S & D were producing. James Drewry designed one-man counterbalanced loading ramps for these trailers."

"The S & D company ceased trading in 1991, but the company is remembered with great affection".

It is probable that some of the work James did during the war is secret. My brother tells me that during the second World War, James was involved in the design of mini-submarines. (picture of the ‘Wellfreighter')

After the war he helped design the successful Lacre T type road-sweeper.

"The S & D company ceased trading in 1991, but the company is remembered with great affection".

Following derived from UK Electoral Roll 2000 - Shelvoke:
Shelvoke & Drewry Ltd of Letchworth - makers of refuse collection vehicles, heavy duty fork lift trucks, and other specialised commercial vehicles. Harry Shelvoke (1878 - 1962) and James Drewry (1883 - 1952) were employed by the Lacre Company that moved to Letchworth Garden City in 1910. (Harry Shelvoke as General Manager, and James Drewry as Chief Engineer) They set up Shelvoke & Drewry in October 1922. The company merged with W. P. Butterfield in 1966. In 1971 a merger with G. A. Harvey formed the Butterfield - Harvey Group of Companies. S & D was the largest subsidiary of the group.

See also the S & D entry in Wikipedia.

Patents

Some 50 or so patents that he held or was a partner in can be found at espacenet.com. Clicking on the patent links provides descriptions and sometimes drawings of the patents.

Some of the machines invented and built by James Drewry and Harry Shelvoke. A Web search (e.g. using 'Drewry' as criterion in an image search) will uncover a large number of Drewry machines and give an indication of the many countries in which those machines were operated.

1911 Census

James Drewry, Head, 26, married, Manager of Motor Manufactory, b. Hackney London
May Drewry, Wife, 22, married under one year, b. Kingston, Surrey
Cecilia Pinckney, cousin, 14, Walthamstow, Middlesex.

GRO:

I cannot find a birth record in FreeBMD. However, there is:

Births Dec 1877, DREWRY Sidney James, St. Olave, 1d 272 (but this seems to be the wrong date - and there are other St Olave Drewrys with James as a common family name.).

Marriages Jun 1910, Drewry James Sydney, Kingston, 2a 739

GRO - Also found:

Jim died in Hitchin, aged 70, in 1952.
Curiously:
Dec 1907, Death: James S. - 70 - Hitchin, 4b 104 (born abt 1837)
Another james died that year:
Dec 1907, Death: James Drewry 67 - Camberwell, 1d 517

The Unofficial Shelvoke & Drewry Website.

"A website created to preserve the name and history of Shelvoke & Drewry Ltd., of Letchworth, Hertfordshire. U.K. who were manufacturers of municipal vehicles for almost 70 years."
The S & D Site is manageded by Brian Carpenter, who sent me the above extract from 'Kaleidoscope of Shelvoke & Drewry'. The site is informative with news items and details of 'S & D Remembered' gatherings in Letchworth.
Brian would particularly like to know the connection, if any, between James and later Drewry railcars.
Brian can be contacted via The Unofficial Shelvoke & Drewry Site.