The Chronicles of Rebbeck - masters of Harland & Wolff Shipbuilding and Heavy Engineering Belfast

Описание: Frederick Rebbeck was born near Swindon, Wiltshire in southern England; his father was a farmer at Badbury, Chiseldon, who died when Frederick was only a year old; his widow moved to Wantage, in the neighbouring county of Oxfordshire. He was an engineering apprentice in England before moving to Belfast, to Victor Coates, the manufacturer of stationary steam engines, he also worked for a time at British Westinghouse, Manchester.

Just four years after rejoining the company he was made a managing director and eventually chairman, a position he held from 1930 until his retirement in 1962. Frederick was knighted in 1941.

Rebbeck had a very forceful personality and completed dominated the H&W management. The problem was that his only practical management experience was in engine building. Although some of the other shipbuilding leaders detested Rebbeck, none of them wanted his job as chairman of H&W, which they regarded as a poisoned chalice.

In September 1941 the trustees again prepared for a public reconstruction of the H&W share structure. Again the plans were frustrated; this time by the outbreak of war with Japan. Bringing H&W back into full production was an expensive and time consuming task. The H&W overdraft was gradually increased by the reluctant banks. Eventually agreement was reached to increase the H&W overdraft to £4 million contingent upon Rebbeck concentrating all his efforts on the management of the Belfast facilities and stepping down from the position of Chairman of H&W. This was a considerable blow to Rebbeck, even though he had the consolation of being awarded a knighthood. The new chairman was Charles Palmour, an accountant from the auditors of Midland Bank.

As the war began to progress in the Allies favour, the trustees revived the idea of recouping their debt and escaping from H&W. This time they were at last successful in restructuring the company’s capital and selling the shares on the London Stock Exchange in 1944. Sir Frederick Rebbeck was reinstated as chairman, with a group of directors that were entirely dominated by him.

Due to illness in March 1962 Sir Frederick Rebbeck resigned and was succeeded by J.S. Baillie as Chairman. Sir Frederick Rebbeck died at his home, Sandown House, at Knock in east Belfast on Saturday 27th June 1964 aged 86.

His son Denis Rebbeck followed his father Sir Frederick Rebbeck as Chief Executive of Harland & Wolff. He was born in Belfast and educated at Campbell College. He then studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he was keen on the mainstream sports there of rowing and Rugby. On graduating in 1935 with a BA in Mechanical Sciences, he joined Harland & Wolff, where he was to remain for the rest of his career, although his first work was building marine diesel engines under licence for Burmeister & Wain, in Belfast. His father was already Chief Executive and the firm was heavily engaged in war production; Denis's responsibility was the production of heavy gun barrels. In 1946 he became a Director at Harland & Wolff, in 1953 he was appointed Deputy Managing Director and eventually, on his father's retirement Managing Director, 1962.

Rebbeck, in his 1966 Message to Shareholders, pointed up restrictive practices and the number of days lost to industrial disputes as the principal cause of the company's decline. Rebbeck managed to obtain government help in the form of a loan, but only at the expense of his own position, as government aid was dependent on more direct government control. in 1966 Rebbeck stood down and became deputy Chairman. Denis Rebbeck retired in 1970.

Alongside his stewardship of the company, he pursued, earlier on in his career, academic qualifications and distinctions including the degrees of BLitt from the University of Dublin, MSc from Queen's University, Belfast the same year, and a PhD from Queen's in 1950. In 1951 he was appointed CBE. He sat on or chaired numerous committees, and not just within or related to the industry, and was widely in demand as a consultant and director; he regularly gave papers to distinguished professional bodies.

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Peter McCabe is a Belfast-based tour guide, with an Open College Network Level 2 Tour Guiding qualification, and is an associate member of History Hub Ulster. Peter possesses experience of leading a variety of walking tours, especially around East Belfast and a in range of local cemeteries, as well as on the city sightseeing tourist buses. To date, Peter has also written four books, detailing people buried in a myriad of cemeteries in Belfast and beyond. Peter also looks after the childhood home of George Best - which is available as a short-term holiday let, and for house tours - and is also a guide at Belfast Harbour Office, his favourite municipal building in Belfast.