William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong Totally Explained

Everything about William George Armstrong totally explained

Sir William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong (November 26 1810 – December 27 1900) was a Tyneside industrialist who was the effective founder of the Armstrong Whitworth manufacturing empire.

Early life

He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, at 9 Pleasant Row, Shieldfield, about three-quarters of a mile from the city centre. The house no longer exists but an inscribed granite tablet marks the spot. At that time the area, next to the Pandon Dene, was quite rural. His father, also called William, was a corn merchant on the Newcastle quayside, who became mayor of Newcastle in 1850. William senior had a daughter, Anne, born in 1802 and William junior born in 1810.
Armstrong was educated at private schools in Newcastle (The Royal Grammar School) and Whickham, near Gateshead until he was sixteen, at which point he was sent to Bishop Auckland Grammar School. Whilst there, he often visited the nearby engineering works of William Ramshaw. During his visits he met his future wife, Ramshaw’s daughter Margaret, six years his senior.
In 1845 a scheme was set in motion to provide piped water from distant reservoirs to the households of Newcastle. Armstrong was involved in this scheme and he proposed to Newcastle Corporation that the excess water pressure in the lower part of town could be used to power a Quayside crane specially adapted by himself. He claimed that his hydraulic crane could unload ships faster and more cheaply than conventional cranes. The Corporation agreed to his suggestion, and the experiment proved so successful that three more hydraulic cranes were installed on the Quayside. In 1886 he was persuaded to stand as a Unionist Liberal candidate for Newcastle, but was unsuccessful, coming third in the election. That same year he was presented with the Freedom of the City of Newcastle. In 1887 he was raised to the Peerage with the title of Baron Armstrong of Cragside. His last great project, begun in 1894, was the purchase and restoration of the huge Bamburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast, which remains in the hands of the Armstrong family. His wife, Margaret, died in September 1893, at their house in Jesmond. Armstrong died at Cragside on 27 September 1900, aged ninety. He was buried in Rothbury chuchyard, alongside his wife. The couple had no children, and Armstrong’s heir was his great nephew William Watson-Armstrong. He was succeeded as chairman of the company by his one-time protégée, Andrew Noble.

The benefactor

Armstrong donated the long wooded gorge of Jesmond Dene to the people of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1883, as well as Armstrong Bridge and Armstrong Park nearby.
   The University of Newcastle was originally founded by Lord Armstrong in 1871 as the College of Physical Science, later Armstrong College in 1904. He was twice president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
   Armstrong gave £11,500 towards the building of Newcastle’s Hancock Natural History Museum, which was completed in 1882. This was an enormous sum in those days.
   Lord Armstrong's generosity extended beyond his death. In 1901 his heir gave £100,000 for the building of the new Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne. Its original 1753 building at Forth Banks near the river Tyne were inadequate and impossible to expand.Further Information

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