Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company

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The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited was a British shipbuilding company in the famous Govan area on the Clyde in Scotland. Fairfields, as it is often known, was a major warship builder, turning out many vessels for the Royal Navy and other navies through the First World War and the Second World War.

[edit] History

The shipyard in Govan was founded in the 1860s as Randolph, Elder and Company, later John Elder and Company. In 1885 the yard was reorganised as the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited. As this company it continued until 1965 when it filed for bankruptcy. In response, the yard was again reorganised in 1966 as Fairfields, under guarantee by the government.

The following year Fairfields and the other major yards of the Upper Clyde - Alexander Stephens and Sons, Charles Connell and Company, Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited and John Brown and Company - were merged to form Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS). UCS collapsed amid much controversy in 1971, and as part of the recovery deal, Fairfields was formed into Govan Shipbuilders which was nationalised as part of British Shipbuilders. On the breakup of British Shipbuilders under denationalisation, the former Fairfields yards were sold to the Kværner group, as Kværner (Govan). In 1999 the yard passed to BAE Systems via the incorporation of Marconi Marine from GEC-Marconi. It is now part of BAE Systems Naval Ships.