John Carden
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Sir John Valentine Carden (born in London 6 February 1892, died on 10 December 1935) was the British tank and vehicle designer. From 16 December 1931 he was the 6th Baronet Carden, of Templemore, co. Tipperary.
Carden was talented self-taught engineer, with an ability to put his ideas to practical use. In 1914-1916 and 1920-1925 he ran a small manufacturer of light passenger cars, under a brand Carden, then New Carden. The first was one-man Carden Cycle Car. During the World War I he served in the Royal Army Service Corps and gained a rank of Captain. He obtained exeprience with tracked Holt tractors then. After the war he returned to car manufacturing, but in 1922 or 1923 he met othe car designer Vivian Loyd and they created a small Carden-Loyd Tractor Company in Chertsey. They both started work upon light traked vehicles for military purpose. Carden was described as "introvert engineering genius", while Loyd as "extrovert engineer-salesman".
What brought them a success, was a tankette design. The first Carden-Loyd One Man Tankette was designed in 1925. In the next two years, they developed it into Marks I, II and III, then they created two-man tankettes Mark IV and Mark V. They all were built in small numbers, but were very promising, and as a result, Carden-Loyd was bought by Vickers-Armstrongs in March 1928. Carden himself was employed by Vickers as the technical director. At that time, they created their most known design: Carden Loyd Mark VI tankette. It became the first succesfull tankette design in the world, and a classic one, produced in several hundred pieces and exported to 16 countries. It became one of most known tanks of the 1930s, and most of later foreign tankettes were its developments or were inspired by Mark VI.
Carden and Loyd designed also light tanks, like a series of widespread Vickers-Armstrongs Commercial Light Tanks (used eg. in Belgium) and British Army's Light Tanks, including Light Tank Mk VI (one of last Carden's designs). They also developed world's first amphibious tank Vickers-Carden-Loyd Amphibian Tank and took part in Vickers E tank constructing. Carden and Loyd developed also several light artillery tractors and carriers, including VA D50 - a prototype of Bren Carrier. As for the 1930s, designs of Carden were ones of most widespread tanks in the world, and became inspirations for many other tanks.
Another interest of John Carden was flying. He built an ultralight plane Flying Flea with a modified Ford engine (Carden-Ford), uprated from 10 to 31 bhp. In 1935 he started an aircraft engine manufacturer Carden Aero Engines Ltd. Along with L.E. Baynes he started Carden Baynes Aircraft Ltd, producing gliders Carden Baynes Auxiliary, of Baynes design, with auxiliary engines.
John Carden was killed in an aircrash of Sabena liner on December 10, 1935, between Tatsfield and Biggin Hill. He was returning from Belgium, and his visit was connected with tank sales, so there were some suspections of a German sabotage.
John Carden was a Member of Order of the British Empire.
[edit] References
- Christopher F. Foss, Peter McKenzie: The Vickers Tanks, 1995, ISBN 1-899506-10-1
