2016 Breer Andrew 1253669

This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ British Industrial Policy Concerning the Heavy Ordnance Industry, 1900–1917 Breer, Andrew Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. 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Sep. 2021 British Industrial Policy Concerning the Heavy Ordnance Industry, 1900–1917 A Thesis Presented in Fulfilment for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Subject of WAR STUDIES By Andrew Breer King’s College, London University of London September 2015 Word Count: 99,865 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................. 12 GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ........................... 14 ......................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................. 16 Methodology .................................................................................. 20 Corporate Archives ...................................................................... 22 Secondary Sources ...................................................................... 23 Primary Sources ........................................................................... 31 CHAPTER TWO: BRITISH GOVERNMENTAL POLICIES ON DEMAND OF ARTILLERY, 1900–1914 ......................................................................... 35 Introduction .................................................................................... 35 Bureaucratic and Political Foundations .................................... 37 Finance ........................................................................................... 39 Votes ............................................................................................... 40 Staff Issues .................................................................................... 43 Budgets .......................................................................................... 44 Bureaucracy .................................................................................. 47 Bidding ............................................................................................ 49 Policy .............................................................................................. 52 The Master General of Ordnance ............................................. 54 The Service Technical Chiefs and Staffs ................................. 57 The Financial Staffs ..................................................................... 59 Parliamentary Reporting ............................................................. 60 Challenges of Ordnance ............................................................. 62 1 Murray Report (1907) .................................................................. 63 Ordering policies ........................................................................... 66 Obsolescence ............................................................................... 69 Reforms in the Services .............................................................. 71 Sub–Contracting ........................................................................... 72 Naval Issues .................................................................................. 74 New Materials ............................................................................... 76 Accuracy and Gun Failures ........................................................ 77 The Boer War ................................................................................ 81 Haldane Reforms .......................................................................... 81 Allocation ........................................................................................ 82 Changes in Business ................................................................... 85 Annual Reporting .......................................................................... 87 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 88 CHAPTER THREE: BRITISH GOVERNMENTAL POLICIES ON SUPPLY OF ARTILLERY, 1900–1914 ....................................................... 90 Historical Supply Chain ............................................................... 91 The Mature Trade ......................................................................... 94 The Government ........................................................................... 98 Repair Work ................................................................................. 101 The New Trade ........................................................................... 105 Labour ........................................................................................... 112 Gun Design and Workforce Skill ............................................. 116 Management................................................................................ 118 Exports .......................................................................................... 120 Technology .................................................................................. 123 Designing Cordite Guns ............................................................ 128 Nickel Steel .................................................................................. 132 2 Conclusion ................................................................................... 134 CHAPTER FOUR: THE CASE STUDY OF THE FIELD ARTILLERY RECAPITALIZATION, 1900–1907 ............................................................. 136 Introduction .................................................................................. 136 British Army Recapitalization: Background ........................... 137 Table I ........................................................................................... 138 A comparison of contemporary artillery prepared for Parliament .................................................................................... 138 The 13 and 18–pr Case Study ................................................. 139 Brackenbury’s Response .......................................................... 144 Committee Response and Industrial Actions ........................ 145 Key Performance Parameters ................................................. 149 Delivered Test Guns .................................................................. 150 Recommendation ....................................................................... 151 Post–test interviews ................................................................... 152 Ordnance Factories ................................................................... 155 Bending guns .............................................................................. 160 India Experience ......................................................................... 162 Aftermath ...................................................................................... 163 Conclusion ................................................................................... 164 CHAPTER FIVE: DESIGN PROBLEMS AND ENGINEERING WORKAROUNDS, 1900–1914 ................................................................... 166 Introduction .................................................................................. 166 Health and Safety ....................................................................... 166 Wire Wound Guns ...................................................................... 167 Diagram 1, Wire construction ................................................... 168 Accident Reporting ..................................................................... 170 Gun Pressures ............................................................................ 171 Health and Safety Past Guns ................................................... 172 3 Gun Longevity ............................................................................. 173 New High Velocity Guns ........................................................... 175 Gas factors in high velocity guns ............................................ 176 Other barrel wear issues ........................................................... 178 Consistency

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