The Humber Electrical Engineering

Humber Electrical Engineering was founded by William Ernest Shuttleworth (pictured right). He was born at Lothersdale in the West Riding and trained at Wolverhampton, arriving in Hull to work at Earles Shipyard as Electrical Manager. In 1908 William left Earles to form his own business. Today, it is hard to recall just how cutting-edge electrical work was back then. The electric light bulb was only a little over 25 years old and just ten years earlier, Marconi had been demonstrating the remarkable power of radio to transmit a message over a distance of just three miles! The firm moved to Portland Place in 1911 where the company still has its headquarters. From the beginning the firm specialised in complete electrical installations on ships, and was a pioneer in the fitting of electric lighting on trawlers. William patented and manufactured several trawler light fittings which were in use until quite recently. Small DC generating sets were also designed and manufactured: in one year alone over 50 ships at Swansea had his sets installed and teams of men worked at shipyards all over the country.