David Brown

David Brown (10 May 1904 – 3 September 1993) was born in Huddelsfield, Yorkshire, England. He was born into the family business of gear making.

Pre David Brown as we know him:

Let’s rewind a little to the start of the David Brown Engineering Company. The David Brown Engineering Company was started by David Brown (Grandfather of Sir David Brown) as a pattern manufacturing company in 1860. By 1873 David Brown Senior started focusing on gear systems and by 1898 was focusing on machine cut gears. David Brown died in 1903 and his two sons Percy and Frank took over the business. This started the era of complete gear units, gears, shafts and worm units. The young David Brown’s passion for design and build became apparent when he started as an apprentice in the family business in 1921.  In 1931 David Brown took over as chairman from his uncle Percy while his father Frank remained chairman. 

The start of Ferguson-Brown:

In 1933 Harry Ferguson needed a set of gears to finish his iconic Black Tractor. Meanwhile, David Brown had just become the managing director of the family business and it was this set of gears that brought two great innovators together for the first time. This set of gears started the love interest for David Brown to start manufacturing tractors.

An agreement to manufacture and market a Ferguson System tractor built by David Brown and Harry Ferguson was reached in 1935. The agreement involved two companies; one managed by each. David Brown controlled the manufacturing while Harry Ferguson took control of the engineering and marketing.

Like most people David wanted to make an informed decision. His father advised him not to get involved in the manufacturing of tractors. One of the reasons for this was that the British tractor industry had a discouraging record of commercial failure; with very few having any long term success despite a splendid record of innovation. Despite this, David decided to pursue his new interest.

Leap of Faith:

Production began in 1936 with space that David rented from the gear factory. The tractor that was been built was known as the Ferguson Type A; and more commonly as the Ferguson- Brown. Ferguson’s name was above the radiator and a small plate just above the starting handle had the name David Brown Tractors. The David Brown Company built their own engines for the tractors.

As predicted, sales were very slow even though the Ferguson-Brown out-performed heavier and more powerful tractors with its new Ferguson System and movability. A barrier for the marketing team was the cost of the tractor (which was almost double than that of the Fordson) and the additional costs of its implements. These needed to be purchased additionally because of the rear linkage of the Ferguson-Brown (while the Fordson conventional drawbar worked well with the equipment already on farms).

A 1936 Ferguson-Brown tractor with plough

As the stock of unsold tractors started to build up, the company started to face financial problems. David and Harry decided to form another joint venture as a measure to increase sales but this failed as well. The relationship started to take strain. Harry suggested cutting the price to increase sales while David wanted a new model with a stronger engine and an additional 4^th gear ratio. 

David Brown runs solo:

Predictably, the partnership ended in 1939. Harry had a successful trip to the USA where he met Henry Ford.  Simultaneously David went ahead with development work on a new tractor without the approval of his partner.

The Ferguson-Brown was a flop with only 1350 units been built between 1936 and 1939. The only two positives that were achieved was the success of the Ferguson system and beginning of the David Brown Tractor Company.

The first tractor designed and manufactured by David Brown at their new factory in Meltham near Huddersfield in Yorkshire was the VAK 1 and VAK 1A.  The tractor was painted bright red and launched with success at the 1939 Royal Show.

A 1946 David Brown VAK 1

Reaction to the new tractor was favourable but unfortunately the timing was terrible as the Second World War had now started. During the war the David Brown factory started on government contracts such as the VIG series tractors for the Royal Air force and tracklayers (crawler tractors) for the British Army.

Post war manufacturing was so successful that the Canadian company Massey-Harris approached David Brown to expand their production internationally. This partnership was turned down.

Post War:

The styling of the David Brown was based on the 1939 VAK tractor up until 1956. This new styling lasted till 1965 when the new white and chocolate colour was introduced.

A 1966 David Brown selectamatic showing the new colour combination

In 1960 David Brown signed a 3 year agreement to manufacture the tractors with a green and white finish as well as a slight styling change. This helped with the economies of scale and more than 2000 units were exported to the USA to be sold under the name of the Oliver Corporation.

David Brown’s Automobile Love:

David Brown always had a passion for motor cars and this could have been inspired by his mother who was the first women driver in Huddersfield. In February 1947 David Brown acquired the Aston Martin brand and factory that was, by now, showing major financial problems.  

Within 18 months of purchasing the Aston Martin motor company David Brown had taken Aston Martin to victory at the Spa 24 hour race in Belgium beating dominant teams like Ferrari, Simca-Gordini and Talbot-Lagos. Aston Martin went on to build the DB1 to which he attributed his initials.

In 1948 David Brown acquired Lagonda and later in 1955 he acquired the coach builder Tickford.

In 1971 Sir David Brown was removed from executive control of the David Brown Company. Then in 1972, through restructuring, David Brown Ltd sold off all the car brands to Company Developments and the tractor division to JI Case. This sale was due to a slump in worldwide tractor sales, increased costs of research and development, increased measures for health and safety as well as increased competition from international brands.

Today David Brown Ltd is a supplier of heavy transmission systems for industrial, defence, marine and railway applications. 

Concluding thoughts:

David Brown was knighted by the queen in 1968 and he became Sir David Brown. He was an amateur race driver, motor cyclist, polo player, tennis player, hunter as well as race horse owner. He fit the profile of a post war industrialized society perfectly. He built on the family business and built tractors and cars that were good enough to challenge even Ferrari.

After being introduced to tractors by Harry Ferguson, Brown went on to buy a sports car company that turned out to be Astin Martin and his initials became part of Astin Martin.

Let’s highlight a few of Sir David Brown’s memorable moments:

1904 David Brown in born

1921 He starts as an apprentice in the family business

1933 David met Harry and the interest and idea of a partnership was sparked

1935 A partnership is formed

1936 The partnership was kicked into action and the Ferguson Brown is built

1939 David Brown builds his own tractor the VAK1

1947 Astin Martin is bought by David Brown

1968 David Brown is knighted

1971 Sir David Brown is removed as an executive of David Brown

1972 The tractor and automobile divisions are sold off

References:

Great Farm Tractors by Michael Williams; Page 82, 83 and 85

Massey Ferguson Tractors by Michael Williams; Page 64, 68 and 72

http://www.davidbrown.com/theastonmartinstory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brown_Ltd.

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/David_Brown_(1904-1993)

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/classic-life/cometh-hour-cometh-man-sir-david-brown