Whitehall Securities

Whitehall Securities was formed in 1907 to handle the financial affairs of Weetman Dickinson Pearson, who became Viscount Cowdray in 1917. Among Whitehall Securities' major shareholders was the French finance and investment company Emile Erlanger & Co.[1]

In 1929, Whitehall Securities became a financial backer of Airwork Services, a British private aviation conglomerate established by Nigel Norman and Alan Muntz the year before.[2]

In 1935, Viscount Cowdray's younger son, Bernard Clive Pearson, took over the management of Whitehall Securities. By that time, Whitehall Securities had acquired several shareholdings in a number of Britain's leading pre-World War II private airlines. Among these was Spartan Air Lines. In April 1935, Whitehall Securities and Jersey Airways formed United Airways as a sister airline to Spartan Air Lines.[1]

In the meantime, Whitehall Securities had acquired a controlling shareholding in Hillman's Airways, which had become a public company in December 1934. Following the death of Hillman's Airways founder Ted Hillman soon afterwards, Major John R. McCrindle became the managing director of Hillman's Airways. Major McCrindle and Clive Pearson were well-acquainted. In September 1935, they agreed to merge Hillman's Airways, Spartan Air Lines and United Airways to form Allied British Airways. A month later, the new airline shortened its name to British Airways.[1]

On 1 August 1936, British Airways took over British Continental Airways, and the following month it absorbed Crilly Airways.[1]

Whitehall Securities' financial involvement with the pre-war British Airways came to an end following the merger of the airline with Imperial Airways to form British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1940, which resulted in the industry's nationalisation.[1]

Meanwhile, in the post-war era, Airwork changed its name to British United Airways (BUA) on 19 May 1960 following Whitehall Securities' permission to let Airwork [re-]use the United Airways name together with the prefix British. (This preceded BUA's official formation on 1 July of that year, when Airwork merged with Hunting-Clan Air Transport.)[3]

Citations

Citations
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Airways (The Archive: The Legacy of BOAC (Pt. 1)), p. 62
  2. ↑ The ATL-98 Carvair: A Comprehensive History of the Aircraft and All 21 Airframes (Part 1: Getting off the ground – Airwork), p. 14
  3. ↑ Airwork: A History (Chapter 2: Company Development 1928–1960 – Formation of BUA), pp. 11/2

References