These three photographic cyanotypes were taken on 4th November 1940 and feature Ernest Bevin, Minister for Labour and National Service in Churchill’s wartime coalition government, on a visit to engineering company British Thomson-Houston (BTH) Rugby, where he addressed assembly workers during break time.

This was reported in AEI News in December 1940, although the location was not disclosed in the article. 
In his rousing speech, Bevin spoke of his great respect for the workers saying: “It is that wonderful heart of Britain that is fighting Germany, and I will put my money on the British team, and the British team is going to win--and it will not be so far distant as you think. Give us another six months' intensive production and we shall have passed Germany, and all that she and her subject races can make. Every day we live we are catching up fast. The moment we have passed them with ships, aircraft, and guns, immediately we have passed them, I venture to prophesy that the ugly Nazi regime will break in Hitler's hands, and the world will move back to a peaceful time of reconstruction”

BTH played an important role in the country’s war effort. In addition to Sir Frank Whittle’s work on jet propulsion engines, BTH developed equipment to detect aircraft and ships, and manufactured components for guns, aircraft, ships and submarines. It also produced searchlight and gun turret controls, radio valves and transmitters, anti-aircraft shells and electric torpedoes.

These images are on display in our new exhibition ‘BTH in Pictures’ featuring images from the company’s publicity department, on now in the local history gallery at RAGM.