Arthur Charles Davis (1876-1950)
Arthur Charles Davis (ACD to Blue Circle people) was a prominent figure in the British cement industry in the first half of the twentieth century. He became Managing Director of Blue Circle during its expansionist period.
Arthur Charles Davis was born on 23/8/1876 at Hoylake in the Wirral. His father - George John Davis (b 1836, Bristol: d 1924, Ealing) - was Head Postmaster at Birkenhead. His mother was Harriet née Terrett (b 1840, Bristol: d 1927, Ealing). He was one of seven children, and his elder brother Frederick William (b 3/1874 Birkenhead: d 1961) remained closely associated with him thoughout his life. Some time in the 1880s, they moved to Melcombe Regis, Dorset, where his father became Head Postmaster for Weymouth. At the 1891 census, his sister Ada was a sorting clerk and telegrapher, and his brother Fred was a temporary sorting clerk, so clearly work for the GPO was a family calling. At the 1901 census, his elder brother Fred was already a Post Office Engineer. ACD attended the private Weymouth College after which he took the higher Civil Service exam and himself became a Post Office engineer.
In his 1917 application for membership of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, we get some dates. His general education is given as Weymouth College 1885-1892; Cambridge University 1900-1904. He claims to have lectured in mechanical engineering at Cambridge during 1900-1904. He lists his qualifications as "Maths, Physics, Draughtmanship" - these presumably being elective Civil Service Exam subjects - and "Lecturer Eng. Lab. Cambridge University." Under "subsequent career", he gives "1892-1900 studying for the Higher Civil Service and Engineer to the Post Office. Resigned 1900."
At some time in the 1890s, while in the Cambridge area, he came into contact with the Keeble brothers, William Gilbert, B J H Forder and the Stewarts.
It seems pretty clear that ACD became involved (the circumstances are obscure) with the Keebles and William Gilbert well before 1900 - perhaps in 1895. The Keebles had acquired the closed and virtually unsaleable Standard brick and cement plant in 1898, mainly in order to extend their brick-making business. ACD was made the manager of the plant. Perhaps at the instigation of ACD, the Keebles decided to abandon the Standard cement plant because of its poor raw materials, and instead set up at Cherry Hinton, where much better raw materials were available. To do this, in 1900 they launched the Saxon Portland Cement Co. Ltd., with ACD as Managing Director. The Keebles were already operating the Saxon Brick Company at Whittlesey near Peterborough. At Easter 1900, ACD matriculated - non-collegiate - at Cambridge University, but since he was fully occupied at Standard, and was involved in the design and construction of Saxon, he received no university education. Much of the Saxon plant was provided "off-the-peg" by FLS, and design was largely done by William Gilbert, but ACD claimed it as his own project. He married George Keeble's daughter Elsie (b 1879, Timberland, Lincs: d 1955) on 13/9/1900 - on the marriage register, his occupation was given as cement manufacturer. His elder brother Fred joined him (or perhaps was there already) and took on management of the adjacent concrete products plant which became a subsidiary - the Atlas Stone Company.
Living now in Cambridge, ACD established and operated the Saxon (1901) and Norman (1904) plants. In 1903, he wrote a number of articles (later re-printed as a book: Note 1) in the Stone Trades Journal on the manufacture of Portland cement. In these, he made the point - subversive at the time - that Portland cement is a chemical product, and in order to stay ahead of German technology, modern cement plants should be operated by chemists and engineers. In addition to the book, he embarked on a massive strategic publicity campaign, aimed at promoting sales, but also making clear his intent to disrupt the industry.
He participated in the Engineering Standards committee that wrote the first British Standard for Portland cement - BS12 (1904).
Like other plants started around the turn of the century, Saxon and Norman rapidly became obsolete, but they were run flat out, regardless of market conditions, selling their product by undercutting the opposition on price, and subverting all attempts to regulate prices. The very substantial financial backing of the Keebles allowed him to run at a loss whenever necessary. This behaviour - on top of the irritation produced by his book - gained for him a very negative reputation in the industry.
Among many negative references to ACD in the diaries of Hudson Earle (Note 2) is a bit of characteristic Earle language derived from gossip with G V Maxted:
Mr Davis, Manager of the Saxon Cement Co, is on the Standard Committee for England, and he suggests that no adulteration should be allowed with English Cement. During the time he was suggesting this, he said to his Manager, who has since left him, a man called Horsburn:- "Now I have been talking to the Standard Committee about adulteration. You know we are adulterating heavily, but keep this quiet as you can". Mr Maxted says he is a man who will do any dirty trick, is Davis, and treats the staff abominably.
S G S Panisset, who had previously been Chief Chemist for Martin Earles, came to Cambridge in 1907. He may have been poached, although many of the Martin Earles staff were fired in that year. He became ACD's faithful leg-man, working diligently in the background on projects for which ACD could claim credit. In 1909, a second edition of ACD's book appeared (Note 3). It had major corrections and new text provided by Panisset.
It was during this decade that ACD first came in contact with Percy Malcolm Stewart ("PMS"), who was performing a similar disruptive role in the cement industry, installing ground-breaking kilns at Sundon. By 1908, a down-turn in their returns from the brick industry caused the Keebles to look for buyers. In 1911, the Keebles and Stewarts sold out their cement businesses to BPCM, and ACD and PMS became managing directors of the new company. APCM directors who expressed horror at the prospect of sharing a boardroom table with ACD were told by O'Hagan (Note 4):
better for the devil to be chained to our board-room table than have him running around wild.
ACD now became Managing Director of manufacturing for BPCM. He instituted a centralised management system that was conspicuously tighter than that practiced by APCM. Although the Joint A&BPCM Research Committee, set up in 1913, was under the figurehead chairmanship of John Bazley White (III), Davis became its effective boss. Davis and the Stewarts became a tightly-knit cabal within the A&BPCM boards, gradually extending their influence dring WWI. They led the group that campaigned strongly for replacing obsolete equipment and upgrading capacity, regardless of market conditions.
In 1918, ACD set up the British Portland Cement Research Association, using government matched funding to form an ostensibly industry-wide research effort. Panisset became Secretary of the Association and was responsible for most of its administration.
On 1919, the boards of A&BPCM were slimmed down, with ACD and PMS retaining key managing directorships, and a further drastic reorganisation took place following Henry Spence Horne's dawn raid on the companies in 1924. After this, PMS was chairman, and ACD was Managing Director in what was now the Blue Circle Group, while many people from the original APCM formation were forced out. Under their leadership the company expanded rapidly in the 20s and 30s, absorbing competitors in the form of the Red Triangle group and Alpha Cement.
In 1924, at the instigation of the US Portland Cement Association, he celebrated the centenary of Joseph Aspdin's Portland cement patent, by publishing under his name A Hundred Years of Portland Cement 1824-1924 (Note 5), which gave a comprehensive history of the industry as it was understood at the time. It is generally accepted that most of the book was written by Panisset. In 1928, he launched the journal Cement and Cement Manufacture - with Panisset as editor. This contained from the outset a long series of articles credited to ACD (but again largely the work of Panisset) on the historical development of the industry and on up-to-date manufacturing processes. These were later compiled into a text book - Portland Cement (Note 6), published 1934 and later re-printed and revised.
By the start of WWII, Davis was living at Stone Castle, Greenhithe. He retired as Managing Director in 1940. He was by then a major figure in the City of London. He was admitted to the Freedom of the City of London as a member of the Guild of Fanmakers. He was High Sheriff of the City of London, 1942-1943 and was knighted in 1944. He was Lord Mayor of London for 1945-1946, and became a baronet in 1946. His residence was Barrington Hall, Cambridgeshire. He died on 27/10/1950.
His sons were also involved in the cement industry. His eldest son Gilbert (b. 2/8/1901, Cambridge: d 14/3/1973) was apprenticed by shipbuilders Palmers of Jarrow, but by 1922 was already applying for Freedom of the City of London as a member of the Grocers Company. He worked for APCM during to 1920s and 1930s but left in 1945 and joined Eastwoods. He became a Managing Director in 1953, but stood down when Eastwoods was taken over by Rugby. ACD's second son, Bernard (b 3/5/1908, Cambridge: d 25/3/1983) became a plant manager in the 1930s, and became Chairman and Managing Director of the Atlas Stone Company after his father and uncle had retired.
ACD's elder brother Fred had many subordinate roles, managing Atlas Stone, commissioning Magheramorne, and was Manager at Wilmington from 1925 to 1935. He retired in 1944. His son Geoffrey George John Davis (b 23/5/1908, Cambridge: d 7/7/1993) was more prominent. Installed at Hope during its commissioning, he became Manager there 1934 to 1939. He then became Northern Area Manager, and in 1945 became assistant to Works Managing Director R F Speir, taking over from him when the latter retired in 1953. A fierce opponent of the ill-fated Northfleet project, he was forced out in 1970.