Stuart Turner
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Stuart Turner was an English engineer born in 1869. Little is known about his childhood or adolescence although we do know that his family's ambitions for him did not include becoming an engineer. He eventually, after a series of other jobs, gained employment looking after the steam generating plant at Shiplake Court near Henley-on-Thames. In those days mains electricity was rare and therefore most large houses had their own electricity generating plants.
It was while working at Shiplake that Mr. Turner designed his No.1 Model Steam Engine. He drew up the patterns which he then sent away to be cast. On their return he machined and assembled them and soon showed the finished model at a local exhibition. He then approached Percival Marshall the editor of Model Engineer magazine who wrote an article about the engine.
The coverage of which bought an immediate response and orders for sets of castings flooded in, and a business was established in 1898. Stuart Turner Ltd was incorporated in 1906 [1] and started to produce model steam engines, gas engines for domestic electricity, lathes, etc. Stuart Turner went on to produce further designs, and by 1906 there were Nine models in the range. By 1907 more space was needed so premises were rented at Market Place, Henley-On-Thames where the company remained for many years.
In 1911, the Stuart Stella motorcycle was introduced, including a two-cylinder water cooled two-stroke engine. In 1914, the company manufactured a generating plant for the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance. It was used in the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
During World War I (1914–18), the company produced nuts and bolts, gas valves and a Klaxon horn for gas attack warnings. The workforce expanded to over 300 men and 100 women. In 1917, Stuart Turner acquired Broadgates Inn in Market Place, Henley-on-Thames, and has used this as a base ever since.
A decision was taken in the late 1980s to separate Stuart Turner Ltd. into two separate operations with the larger side of the business making pumps staying at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England and the Steam Engine section moving to Cheddar in Somerset. In 1991 Stuart Models underwent a change of ownership with the production and sales departments moving to Guernsey.
