Life History

7 Dec 1842	Born in Notting Hill.
21 Apr 1843	Baptised in Paddington.
16th Jan 1875	Married Margaretta Elizabeth Main in South Horsham, Southampton.
4th Sep 1876	Birth of son Charles Stewart Drewry in 9, Upper Road, Plaistow.
1876	Death of Margaretta Elizabeth Main in Essex.
11th Feb 1878	Married Julia Fava Wood in Marston, West Ham.
1878	Birth of daughter Maude Stewart Drewry.
1880	Birth of daughter Annie I. Drewry in London, Clapton.
1881	Birth of son William C. F. Drewry.
1883	Birth of son James Sidney Drewry in London, Clapton.
1884	Birth of son Vincent H. Drewry in London Walworth Rd.
1886	Birth of daughter Julia T. Drewry.
16th Jan 1888	Birth of son Alfred F. Vere Drewry in Finsbury Park.
23rd March 1929	Died in Richmond.
27/03/1929	Buried in East Sheen Cemetery.

Notes

Cannot find a birth reference in freebmd.org. Place of birth derived from Census.

On 21st October, 1872, Charles was 2nd engineer on board the 'Baroda' travelling from the Port of Galle to Sydney, New South Wales. The Baroda plied the Bombay - Australia route.
In 1873, the ship is in quarantine in Sydney harbour because of a smallpox epidemic. Mary Drewry said that when Charles married Julia, she made him stay ashore!

However, before he married Julia, Charles married Margaretta Elizabeth Main, in 1875, in Southampton (possibly his ship was in dock there?). Charles address in the marriage certificate is given as Harrow Road, Paddington, and Margaretta's as South Horsham. The marriage was witnessed by Elizabeth Greaves, Charles Greaves, and William Tillotson Drewry.
Charles and Margaretta had a child in September, 1876, and gave him the same name as his father: Charles Stewart. Margaretta died that same year. Charles Stewart Jr. remains in the family at least until the 1891 census. He later moves to Manchester.

The second marriage, with Julia, was witnessed by Mary Fava Wood and William Tillotson Drewry.
In his and Julia's marriage certificate, Charles is described as a widower; profession: Engineer.
At the time of the marriage, Charles and Julia are both living in Plaistow.

I have not found an 1881 census record for Charles and Julia but in the birth certificate of their son William C. F. (October 1881) they are living at 11, Glenarvon Road, Hackney.
In William's certificate, Charles' occupation is shown as 'Surgical instrument maker'.
(Interestingly, in Charles and Julia's marriage certificate, Julia's father, James, is described as a 'Surgical Hosier'.)

In 1883, the family is living at 184, Walworth Road.
On May 6th that year three of the children, Annie I., William C. F., and James S. are baptised in St. John's Walworth.
Again, the baptism records show their father as a 'Surgical instrument maker'

In the 1891 census: the family is living at 1 Market Place, in the Camberwell parish.

The members of the household are:

Charles S Drewry, 49, Mechanical Engineer
Julia F Drewry, 41, born Scotland Edinboro.
Charles S Drewry, 14, Shop boy, born Essex, Plaistow
Maud M Drewry, 12, Scholar, born Essex, Plaistow
Annie I Drewry, 10, Scholar, born Middlesex, Bow
William C Drewry 9, Scholar, born Middlesex, Clapton
James S Drewry, 8, Scholar, born Middlesex, Clapton
Harold V Drewry, 7, born London, Walworth
Julia T Drewry, 4, born Essex, Buckhurst Hill
Alfred V Drewry, 3, born Hornsey

Herne Hill Cycle Works - Drewry & Sons

Civil and Etherington (C&E) state that "the Drewry & Sons 'works' was located in three raiway arches at 286-290 Milkwood Road, beneath the south end of Herne Hill railway station. The arches remain there to this day. This site was known as Herne Hill Cycle Works in 1900 and was then occupied by H D Coventry & Co. The first recorded the appearance (in a 1902 trade directory) of the Drewy name at this address, lists Charles Stewart Drewry & Sons as cycle makers, whilst corresponding entries for 1905 and 1906 show Drewry & Sons as motor engineers."

The 'sons' in Drewry & Sons were minimally James and Alfred. Alfred does not appear to have been officially connected with the Drewry Car Co although one suspects that various members of the family were at different times involved. For example, in 1908, William Drewry "was awarded a bonus of £20 in consideration of the 'good results obtained from the cars running on the Leopoldine Railway'" (C&E p.24) In 1928, Vincent, as a 'Railway Officer', visited Argentina.

The obituary of James S Drewry says that "After serving an apprenticeship in the family cycle business of Drewry and Sons at Herne Hill, he joined in 1899 the firm of De Dions." So it seems that Charles (& Sons) had been in the cycle business for some time before they took over the Herne Hill Cycle Works. It may be that the move to the new premises coincided with, indeed may have been needed by, the development of the first Drewry railcar.

Drewry & Sons - The Drewry Car Co.

In 1904, James Drewry (right) took his first motorized rail inspection Trolley to Africa. One suspects that enough interest was shown in it to persuade Charles that Drewry & Sons should be in the motor business.

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."

The pictures below (click on an image for a larger size picture) show 1908 and 1910 railcars in production.

'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 Wikipedia entry for the Drewry Car Co. continues:
"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?)

The Drewry Car Co. in Civil and Etherington (C&E)

C&E (p.24) report that: "The Drewry Car Co Ltd. was registered on 27th November 1906 with its office at River Plate House, 13 South Place, London EC. " This address was also the headquarters of a number of British owned Argentinian railway companies and of Arthur G Evans & Co Ltd. Evans & Co were the London arm of import agents based in Buenos Aires.
"It was the prospect of supplying more Drewry railcars to [the South American] market that induced Arthur G Evans & Co to take a major financial interest in the new company."

The directors of the new company were Charles Drewry (Chairman), James Drewry, and Guy Evans (partner in Arthur G Evans & Co).
At the first board meeting in December 1906 "it was resolved to 'purchase and acquire the business of manufacturers of railway-motor cars heretofore carried on by the firm of Drewry & Sons at Herne Hill, but now intended to be carried on at (59) Somerset Road, Teddington.'
The Drewrys were each allotted 250 paid up £1 shares in the new company .. A further 500 shares were allotted to Guy Evans [and his partners]. .. Arthur G Evans & Co was appointed sole agent throughout the world for the sale of railway motor cars and other products."

All did not go well at Teddington (too small, too costly) and in 1908 the Birmingham Small Arms Co Ltd (BSA) agreed to manufacture the railcars. "It also agreed to take over the stock, modern machine tools and usable plant at Teddington .. and further agreed to employ J S Drewry as a designer for a minimum six months. As a result of this he left the Drewry board and is not heard of again in a Drewry Car Co context." (C&E p.24)

BSA and Baguley

Unfortunately, while business was growing steadily, BSA were not making any money out of manufacturing Drewry cars. In March 1910, Ernest E Baguley Manager of BSA's Motor division suggested to the BSA board that they should ask Drewry to find another manufacturer for their vehicles. When the board eventually did so in September, 1911, the Drewry board had already found a new manufacturer and the agreement with BSA was terminated in December of that year.

The new manufacturer was Baguley Cars Ltd of Burton-on-Trent, set up by Ernest E Baguley. BSA had 'dispensed with his services' towards the end of 1910, and Ernest had seen that with financial backing he could create a company that could bid for Drewry work.

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 in the National Archives, the following are a few:

• 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.

WW1

The first two years of the first world war were not too busy for the Drewry Car Co, but in 1916, business started to get better with orders from the French and British governments. One order from the British on behalf of the Russian government was for 20 armoured rail car chassis. These were being delivered in 1917 when the Revolution started.

C&E (p.29) point out that for some time there was uncertainty about who would settle the account.
"Someone paid up the following year (1918), but whether it was the Russians or the British government is not recorded. "
(See also Vincent Drewry)

Death of Charles

C&E (p.31) state that:
"Mr C S Drewry, the founder and last member of the family to serve on the board of directors died on 23rd March 1929 whilst still in office. He had been prevented by ill health from attending meetings for some two years "

Censuses

In the 1901 census, the family is living at 34, Kestrel Avenue, Lambeth
and the family comprises:

Charles S Drewry, 58, Mechanical Engineer
Julia F Drewry, 52
James S Drewry, 18, Mechanical Engineer
Vincent H Drewry, 17, Shorthand Clerk (Harold V. in previous)
Julia T Drewry, 14, Scholar
Alfred V F Drewry, 13, Scholar, born Finsbury Park, Lambeth
Jessie M Wood, 11, niece of Julia, born London, Lambeth
Teresa J Wood, 13, niece of Julia, born London, Lambeth

Unfortunately I can find no entries for Teresa and Jessie in the 1891 census.

1911 Census - 30, Lawn Crescent, Kew Gardens

Charles Stewart Drewry, Head, 68, Mechanical Engineer, own account, at home
Julia Fava Drewry, Wife, 62, married 33, b. Edinboro' NB
Maude Stewart, daughter, 32, Actress, Plaistow Middlesex
Julia Teresa Drewry, daughter, 24, L.C.C. teacher, Buckhurst Hill Essex
Alfred Frederick Vere Drewry, son, 23, Buyer in Motor body factory,

In his son, Alfred's wedding certificate in 1914, Charles is described as 'Retired Engineer' (He would be 71 then)

Burial (See photo and burial entry in Julia's page.)

Charles's burial is recorded as 27/03/1929 in Richmond's East Sheen Cemetery, section F plot/grave 54. It is unmarked.
The unmarked grave beside it, grave 53 is that of Charles's son-in-law, Fred Knight.

GRO
Marriage Mar 1875, Drewry Charles Stewart, S Stoneham, 2c 91
Marriage Mar 1878, Drewry Charles Stewart, West Ham, 4a 42
Death Mar 1929, Drewry Charles Stewart, Richmond S. 2a 1202

Also found: Births Sep 1876, Drewry Charles Stewart, West Ham, 4a 97

Also curiously:
Marriages Dec 1879, Drewry Margaret Elizabeth, Lambeth, 1d 668
This Margaret Elizabeth, marrying George Trill in the presence of John Darwin Smith and Emma Drewry was born Margaret Elizabeth Smith, about 1822.
The marriage certificate shows her as a widow, almost certainly of George Drewry whom she married in Lambeth in 1845 (GRO: Sep 1845, 4, 332).