Life History

Notes

• 
  In 1901 census, aged 18; occupation: Mechanical Engineer

  Designer/inventor; Locomotive and equipment builder.

  The First Railcar

  (Click 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 1902 or 1904 and that James took the railcar or one like it to South Africa where he worked on the proposed Cape-to-Cairo railroad. See photos in James Drewry in Africa, 1904-1906.
  

  
  'A Catalogue of the Papers of the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited' in www.warwick.ac.uk: MSS.19A/1/2/4 (Dec 1908) mentions an "order for manufacture of 10 Drewry railcars".

  

  The Drewry Car Co.

  The Wikipedia entry for the Drewry Car Co. says:
  "Drewry & Sons ran a motor and cycle repair business in Herne Hill, London, and started building BSA engined inspection railcars. A ready market was found in South America, Africa, and India. Drewry Car Co Ltd was registered on 27 November 1906. In 1908 BSA (of motor-cycle fame) took over building the railcars at Small Heath, Birmingham. In 1911 building was taken over by Baguley Cars Ltd, Burton-on-Trent. From 1930 a lot of Drewry locomotives were built by English Electric companies."
  However, there is also the following statement which is to say the least rather curious:
  "In 1962 Drewry acquired a controlling interest in what had become E E Baguley Ltd, and formed Baguley-Drewry Ltd in 1987, thus once again building its own locomotives, in Burton-on-Trent. The company closed in 1984."
  (The '1987' could be a typo, an '8' instead of a '6', but given that James Drewry died in 1952, who was the Drewry who took over E E Baguley?)

  Baguley-Drewry Ltd.

  The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service have some of the records of 'Baguley-Drewry Ltd., of Uxbridge Street, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire'.
  They describe the company as follows: "Baguley Cars was founded in 1902, developing from the earlier Burton railway engineering firm of Thornewill and Warham. In 1911 the firm began the concentration of railcar and locomotive construction but in 1931 Baguley (Engineers) Ltd. failed. A new firm, E. E. Baguley Ltd., was founded in 1933 to continue the work of the earlier firm and this later became Baguley-Drewry Ltd.
  Most of the early output of the firm was under the Drewry (headquarters at River Place House, London E.C.2) name and the variable link with Drewry is frequently confusing, as many "Drewry of London" vehicles were actually built at Baguleys in Burton."
  About the production they say:
  "All Baguley/Baguley-Drewry/Drewry products were referred to as "cars", irrespective of whether they were petrol/diesel railcars, petrol/diesel/steam/electric locomotives, or railway rolling stock.
  Much of the Company's production was for Overseas markets - narrow gauge locomotives became a particularly speciality. Many of the products were highly individualistic (many ornate inspection saloons for Oriental railways, for instance) and often of highly archaic appearance."

  As examples of the many records, the following are a few of the loose, mostly undated, photos:

  • 10 ton platform truck supplied to Ministry of Munitions
  • 4 h.p. rail car (literally a car on rails) for the war office
  • No.902 20h.p. 0-4-0 supplied to war office for Le Havre
  • No.681 10 h.p. 2ft. gauge supplied to Assam Tea Gardens
  • No.684 10 h.p. 60 cm. gauge 0-4-0 for War Office Trench Warfare Department
  • No.698 20 h.p. metre gauge loco supplied to French Government's Bourges Arsenal
  • South India Railway: cars No s1324-1325 for Nilgiri Mountain Railway
  • Car No.1326 for Barbados Government Railway
  • Tasmanian Government Railways - 75 h.p. chassis Nos. 1498-1500
  • Cars Nos. 1543-1544 for Fayoum Light Railway, Egypt
  • Saloon car No.2048 for Burma Railways
  • 102 h.p. 0-4-0 loco. No.2128 for Calcutta Electric Supply Co.
  • 6 wheel petrol railcar "Panghai, Namtu" (?China)
  • and many, many more.
  (Some pictures of a Drewry2047)

  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.

  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 amanageded 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.

  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.

  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

  Check out:

  
  Sandstone Heritage Trust
  At Sandstone Estates in the Eastern Free State of South Africa there is a large steam locomotive workshop for narrow gauge railway, one of the world's most comprehensive collections of tractors and other agricultural equipment, together with a team of motivated, professional and dedicated enthusiasts to ensure restoration work is undertaken to the highest standards and skills are passed on to the next generation.