METROPOLITAN-VICKERS: ARTHUR FLEMING’S INFLUENCE ON THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF APPRENTICE TRAINING AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO FEMALE COLLEGE AND STUDENT APPRENTICES BETWEEN 1945-1967 VERONICA MARY JACKSON A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History, Politics and Philosophy Manchester Metropolitan University 2016 Abstract Veronica Jackson Manchester Metropolitan University Metropolitan-Vickers: Arthur Fleming’s influence on the origins and evolution of apprentice training and technical education, with particular reference to female College and Student apprentices between 1945-1967 This thesis examines the significance, influence and limitations of the apprenticeship and technical education system which was developed between the 1900s and 1950s by the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Engineering Company under its Director of Research and Education, Sir Arthur P M Fleming. Metropolitan-Vickers was well known in the industry for its highly developed technical skills, industrial research facility and the quality of its technical and vocational education. This thesis argues that this reputation made a significant contribution to the corporate culture which Metropolitan-Vickers fostered within the company and the wider community as an organisation at the forefront of modern engineering training and practices. It assesses the significance of Fleming, the architect of its innovative apprentice training system, which replaced ‘premium’ apprenticeships with a tiered system of trade, college and schools apprentices who were intended to become skilled ‘craftsmen’ and professional engineers. This system continued after Fleming’s retirement in the mid-1950s and the thesis debates its continuing limitations for females operating in a male-dominated engineering industry in which women’s skills and competencies were questioned. Women who trained to become professional engineers faced many difficulties from the First World War until the 1960s and the thesis examines the extent to which a combination of societal pressures, cultural expectations and class issues limited the ambitions of girls who entered grammar schools in the postwar period. It focuses on the implications for the ‘exceptional’ young girls who did gain entry to the level of technical education in which Metropolitan-Vickers took such pride. These experiences are set within the context of the work undertaken by Isabel Hardwich, a physicist, largely neglected in the history of technical education, who was responsible for ‘technical women’ in the company’s research department. Hardwich played a prominent part in the Women’s Engineering Society which developed initiatives to encourage more girls into engineering and the thesis questions the extent to which these measures were, or could be, successful in a period when women’s skills were so strongly defined by broader social and cultural pressures. In so doing the thesis highlights the pressures placed on the small number of women who did develop careers in engineering, even within a company like Metropolitan-Vickers that was so intimately associated with innovative training both within the industry and beyond. i Contents Page Acknowledgements iv List of Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 Chapter One A 'giant' of the engineering industry: Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical 64 Engineering Company Limited, Trafford Park, 1945-1967 Part One: Metrovicks, 1899-1967: a brief history 65 Part Two: The aristocrats of the engineering industry': Metrovicks' position as an 'industrial giant' during the 1950s and 78 1960s Part Three: 'The spirit of service...loyalty and comradeship...unites us all: an examination of Metrovicks' corporate identity in the post-war period 89 Chapter Two The education of apprentices: the influence of A P M Fleming, Director of Research and Education, on the company and on the electrical engineering industry 111 Chapter Three Tensions in society during the 'long 1950s: the ethos of the girls' grammar schools and the implications of class and gender on the transition into workplace training of female apprentices 163 Part One: The nature of post-war youth culture and its affect on ii girls' grammar school pupils 164 Part Two: Girls' grammar schools in post-war Britain: issues surrounding parity of esteem, aspiration and youthful rebellion 176 Part Three: 'Staying On': the impact of class and gender on the ability of the grammar school girl to access higher education and a professional career 196 Part Four: 'Exceptional' young women: An assessment of the extent to which societal pressures and cultural shifts affected the transition from grammar school to apprenticeship training of the 'forgotten generation' during the 'long 1950s' 203 Chapter Four 'Exceptional' women: Metrovicks' female College and Schools Apprentices, their technical education and training and their place in a male-dominated industry 215 Part One: The pioneers, the early history of the Women's 217 Engineering Society, and Metrovicks' own trailblazers Part Two: Graduate College Apprentices and Schools 227 Apprentice 'Sandwich Girls' Part Three: Isabel Hardwich: A WES stalwart at Metrovicks 240 Part Four: Combatting prejudice and resisting pressure: an 250 examination of the expectations placed on the female apprentice and the young woman engineer Part Five: Female skills and competencies: the relationship 266 between women and engineering Part Six: 'It is probably easier for the rich man to get through the eye of the proverbial needle than it is for a girl in Britain to 272 iii become an engineer': the response of Metrovicks, the WES and government during this period Conclusion 295 Bibliography 309 iv Acknowledgements Thanks to all the staff at: the Bodelian Library, Oxford University; the British Library; Edge Hill University Library, Ormskirk; Imperial College Archive, London; Institution of Electrical Engineers, London; John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester; London School of Economics (the Women's Library); Manchester Central Reference Library; National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; North-West Sound Archive, Clitheroe; The National Archive, Kew; Sir Kenneth Green Library, Manchester Metropolitan University; and the Working Class Movement Library, Salford. Special thanks to Jan Shearsmith at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. His archival knowledge and skills have been invaluable, as has his patience in dealing with my many requests. I owe him a debt of gratitude. Thanks to the Manchester European Research Institute, whose scholarship award allowed me to undertake this research. Thanks to the staff at Manchester Metropolitan University, especially Deborah Bown who has provided more support and encouragement than she will ever know. Special thanks also to Paul Wake who has been an attentive and encouraging mentor. The members of the Women's Engineering Society who were kind enough to be v interviewed deserve my heartfelt appreciation of their work and my thanks for their contribution. My thanks also to Dawn Bonfield who arranged these contacts. I am grateful to Dame Margaret Beckett M P, Diana Bradley, Carol Brent, Pat Dyehouse, Isobel Smith and all the other people who gave their time to be interviewed. Most of these volunteers wished to remain anonymous and so I have adopted the convention of referring to all of them by their initials. Their contributions have been invaluable. Thanks to Pat Ayers at Manchester Metropolitan University for all her help and guidance in the initial stages of this research. Professor Melanie Tebbutt has continued this process and I am grateful for her insights. These have shaped the way in which the thesis has developed. Thanks beyond measure to all my family; husband, sister, children, spouses and grandchildren. To K J for much needed good-humour, support, patience and critical analysis; to Nutty for her faith in my ability to complete this, and as amanuensis, proof-reader, and too much else to be able to catalogue; to El for technological wizardry and who, as a fellow PhD student, always put things into perspective and understood the pressures faced when trying to complete a thesis; to Isabelle and Thomas for bringing great fun to the process when it was most needed. The thesis is yours as well as mine, and is dedicated to you. In memory of Nan and Bill who worked at Metrovicks. To Mary, Mary, Catherine, vi and Katie who were all so talented in so many ways but, sadly, were never given the opportunity of accessing higher education. This is my attempt to make it up to you. Manchester Metropolitan University October 2015 vii List of Abbreviations AMIEE Associate Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers AEI Associated Electrical Industries Limited BAWE British Association of Women Executives BACIE British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education BTH British Thomson-Houston Limited CASIG Careers Advisory Service for Girls GEC General Electric Company Limited ICI Imperial Chemical Industries Limited IEE (IET) Institution of Electrical Engineers (now known as Institution of Engineering and Technology) IEE NAEST 070 Archive: Sir Arthur P M Fleming viii IEE NAEST 92A Archive: Mrs I H Hardwich MIEE Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers IMechE Institution of Mechanical Engineers MCL Manchester Central Reference Library Metrovicks, M-V Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Engineering Company