Empire Day

The acquisition of 17 glass plate negatives for the Museum will bring a Windermere story to life.

In Autumn 1938 a shining, streamlined 16 foot steel and alloy craft was bobbing in the water outside Borwick’s of Windermere. It had been secretly manufactured in Slough and brought to Windermere by train. The vessel was Empire Day – named on Empire Day itself (24 May) and it was piloted by one of its two designers, Bradford-born engineer, Edward Spurr, who had to remove the wheel to squeeze himself into the tight space of the cockpit.

Commentators made comparisons to aeronautical design. Spurr himself described how the design of the cambered hull shape reduced friction, lifting the nose clear of the water and helping the boat plane across the lake. He used only his hands rather than his feet for the controls, to achieve maximum sensitivity.

Observers may have been intrigued by two clues to the identity of Spurr’s co-designer: the boat was christened twice – with champagne then lemonade, and was inscribed ‘to L of A: a compte’ (on account). Lawrence of Arabia - or ‘aircraftman Shaw’, as he became after the war - had worked with Spurr on over 70 miniature models as progress towards this design and the lemonade was a tribute to him as a teetotaller. After Lawrence’s death in 1935 Spurr continued the work they had begun together.

Behind this project lay Lawrence’s longer term interest in planing hull design and the development of fast motor torpedo boats. He had previously worked with Hubert Scott-Paine, the designer of White Lady II, which also shows the influence of aero design.

The 1938 attempts on Windermere met with difficulties, including a fire which was almost fatal to Spurr within his enclosed cockpit. However, the evocative images that we have acquired capture the anticipation and excitement before the trials, with the gleaming vessel surrounded by a throng of press, cameramen and excited onlookers.

Margaret Reid
Curator