Ekco the War Years

Michael Lipman MBE

Foreword: The manuscript contained in this piece was originally written on flimsy copy-type paper using a typewriter with a worn ribbon. It has recently been re-discovered and has taken many hours of painstaking rebuilding to bring it to a condition where it can be reproduced.

It is thought that this version was sent to 'person' unknown in Malmesbury by Mick Lipman as a proof copy for the final version, which appears in his memoirs (Memoirs of a Socialist Businessman) published privately 2 years after his death in 1978 by the trust fund set up in his name. These memories are published with the kind permission with 'The Lipman-Milband Trust'.

These memories add a valuable piece in the jigsaw of knowledge regarding the story of airborne radar in World War 2 as well as giving an invaluable insight in the effect of having a 'shadow factory' had on a rural town in Wiltshire, which Mick Lipman says was still almost feudal in its attitudes when he arrived in 1939.

It tells the story of a remarkable man, who was obviously had great organisational skills in setting up Cowbridge House and even greater skills in managing the factory during WW2.

Mick Lipman was born in Leeds in 1902 to Russian Jewish parents who had escaped to England to avoid persecution. Mick Lipman studied mechanical and electrical engineering at Leeds University before setting up his own radio repair company in the 1920's. After this business failed he became the UK representative of the German AEG Company in 1928 and came into contact with EKCO when he visited the company in 1930 to try and sell them Bakelite mouldings moulded by AEG. Not only did Eric Cole and Bill Verrells like the idea, they decided to buy the presses from Germany and effectively head hunted Mick Lipman to run the operation starting a 17 year association with the company.

That he was highly trusted is evident from the degree of freedom he was given both in operational matters as well as financially. Mick Lipman in running Cowbridge was party to the secret work being undertaken, readers therefore may be surprised to discover that shortly after the war he was unceremoniously asked to leave the company for reasons he was not given but it was implied that because of his perceived 'leftist' views.

The second important character in the story is 'Hugh Leedham'. Group Captain Hugh Leedham was a man of considerable authority effectively being in a position to authorise and underwrite the procurement of the shadow factory as well as taking responsibility for a high expenditure without contract cover later in the war.

He was a distinguished RAF officer being awarded the OBE in 1930, appointed Assistant Director (Instruments) in the Joint Directorate of Scientific Research & Development of the RAF in Nov. 1935 later promoted in June 1938 to the role of Deputy Director of Communications Development in the Joint Directorate of Research & Development.

Promoted to the rank of Air Commodore in May 1940,he was made Director of the Directorate of Radio Production but was transferred to Ministry of Aircraft Production in August 1940 to oversee the introduction and manufacture of airborne radar.

At the Ministry of Aircraft Production, he was a member on both the Technical Equipment Committee and the Experimental Sub-Committee of the W/T Board. The last known posting was as the Director of Communications (Development) at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, a post that he took-up in January 1943.

Hugh Leedham retired at the end of the war. : Chris Poole

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Having from the time of Hitler's seizure of power in 1933, been only too painfully aware of the danger, if not the inevitability of war, the last days of August 1939 came almost as a relief, after the successive capitulation's to the dictators by Baldwin, Chamberlain & Co. At last this was the climax, our successive reverses of the Rhineland, Austria and lastly Czechoslovakia at Munich, having left us in the worst possible situation in which to fight a war, the only escape from which was still further capitulation to Hitler.

I was at the time, running the Electrical Appliance Division of Ekco Radio, and as I also had responsibility for car radio, the annual Radiolympia Exhibition held every August found me up at Hammersmith. The exhibition had opened with the usual fanfare and ballyhoo, but the place was deserted except for exhibitors and a few members of trade. After a day or two, it was announced over the public address system that, owing to preparations for possible war, television transmission was to cease and the exhibition was to close down.

I heard the announcement in company with Eric Cole, the chairman Billy Verrells and John Wyborn, Chief Engineer. I turned to Eric Cole, the managing director, and formally requested leave of absence, as I had offered my services in such capacity as might be found useful, to the then Ministry of Supply. He duly acknowledged my request which he promised to put to the Board, and we all went back to Southend.

One or two days later, at about 7 on Saturday morning, I was awakened by a phone call requesting me to attend an important meeting at the factory at 8 am. When I arrived, I found Cole, Verrells, Wyborn and Jones (Works Manager) together with three RAF officers in uniform and an official in civilian clothes who was introduced as Group Captain Hugh Leedham. Without more ado, I was requested to leave forthwith with my wife, and find, within a radius of 100 miles to the West of London, factory premises capable of being used to produce radio equipment, not specified, of dimensions not greater than the TV sets then being produced.

I was not given requisitioning powers, but it was made clear that if I found suitable premises not vacant, such powers would be made available. I was further instructed that on approval of the premises I chose, they were to be equipped with sufficient machines and tools to enable me to organise production of unspecified equipment, with a personnel of not more than 200 people. I was further assured by Eric Cole, that in event of war I could recruit a nucleus of staff at not higher than foreman level, from the main Works at Southend-on-Sea.

With these somewhat nebulous terms of reference and nothing in writing, they wished me good luck and went I went off home, collected my wife and a couple of suitcases, and by lunch time we were off. I had drawn a circle of 100 miles radius west of London on a road map, and decide that the search should concentrate on an area bounded by Newbury, Devizes, Bath, Stroud, Gloucester and Swindon.

The search which began on the Monday, started at Witney, and for three or four days concentrated mainly on the textile mills with which the West Country thereabouts, especially the Stroud Valley was well supplied. Three or four factories in and around Stroud and Minchinhampton were possibles and , as it had been agreed to rendezvous at the "Bell" in Malmesbury, Eric Cole and the others turned up there later in the week for us to report progress.

Germany was on the point of invading Poland, and the day after we arrived at the Bell, the news broke of Germany's non-aggression Pact with the USSR. Well this was it! War could now only be a few days off. A telephone call to the Air Ministry confirmed the utmost urgency of our search, and to this was added the instruction to keep clear of towns, as we would be required to maintain the utmost secrecy in our operations. It transpired that a doctor friend of Eric Cole's, Dr. William Winch who used to practise in Westcliff-on-Sea, now had a country practise in Malmesbury, hence the rendezvous.

We spent a rather apprehensive weekend there; fortunately, the Bell was well supplied with good food and drink, and the usually taciturn mine host, Mr. Hatchwell being very co-operative, we managed to drown our sorrows and apprehensions until the Monday, when my search started afresh. The "secrecy" instructions - and concern about vulnerability of Southend in a war with Germany, caused me some worry. If not in a town, how was I to find suitable premises in the country where there would be little or no labour?

At the end of a week I decided that my best bet was to find a large country house, with possibilities of adaption and extension, but sufficiently near a centre of population from which to draw labour. I wired Mr. Tait, the chairman of Hamptons, whom I had met recently in connection with an installation in a liner they were outfitting, and asked him to put his firm at my disposal in a search for a large country house, vacant, not more than three miles from a centre of population. He promptly put me in touch with two or three West Country firms specialising in such property, and by next Wednesday when we met at Shepton Mallet, I had a number of lengthy lists of suitable properties. One of them was actually within two miles of Malmesbury, and I went back to see the place.

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