Vickers

Vickers may refer to a surname or to a prominent British engineering and manufacturing company, as well as to related products and concepts. The best known use is Vickers Limited, a major industrial group that expanded from iron founding into shipbuilding, armaments, mining equipment, and heavy engineering during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Vickers Limited grew into a leading defense contractor and supplier of industrial equipment. It produced a number of notable weapons and vehicles, including the Vickers machine gun, a water-cooled heavy machine gun widely used by Britain and its allies in the First World War and beyond. The firm also designed and manufactured aircraft components and ships, and it built the Vickers Wellington, a twin-engined bomber developed by Vickers-Armstrongs. In the realm of armored fighting vehicles, Vickers produced the Vickers 6-ton light tank and other early WWII era designs. In 1927, Vickers Limited merged with Armstrong Whitworth to form Vickers-Armstrongs, a consolidated British defense and engineering group.

In 1999 the Vickers business was acquired by Rolls-Royce, with shipbuilding and naval engineering activities integrated into Rolls-Royce’s defense and marine divisions. The Vickers name persists in historical references to the company and its products, though the original corporate structure has largely been absorbed into Rolls-Royce.

The name Vickers also appears in science and engineering contexts. The Vickers hardness test, a standard method for determining material hardness using a diamond indenter, is named after the company. The surname Vickers is of English origin and has been borne by various individuals in public life.