Alliott Verdon Roe and his family.

In his early teens, he disliked his name Edwin and adopted his middle name Alliott. Not long after the family took on the mother's maiden name of Verdon so he became Alliott Verdon Roe. He was 46 when the London Gazette announced that a hyphen had been added to his name. From then his title was Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon-Roe OBE, Hon FRAeS, FIAS.

His younger brother Humphrey Verdon Roe (18 April 1878-27 July 1949) became his business partner in the new company of "A.V. Roe and Company", better known as Avro. The first manufacturing aircraft company, in this country, which was founded on the 1st January 1910 and became a limited company 11th January 1913.

Humphrey after leaving school enlisted as an officer in the Manchester Regiment and served in the Boer War. In February 1902 he left his military career, his mother's uncle had died and a family member was needed to manage the business. This company was Everard & Co. at Brownsfield Mill in Manchester. They manufactured elasticated webbing with the most successful product "Bullseye Braces", which led to the "stock joke that 'Avro' biplanes were kept up by Bullseye Braces." Humphrey lifted the company back to commercial viability.

In 1909 Humphrey invested in his brother Alliott's aeronautical inventions and gave him the basement of the Brownsfield Mill for manufacture of his early aircraft.

Humphrey became managing director of the Avro company. The company was extremely successful and the brothers became rich, but then in 1917 they had a disagreement and Humphrey left the company to join the RFC. Alliott sold his shares in A.V. Roe & Co in 1928 and acquired S.E. Saunders Ltd, which was renamed Saunders-Roe. The company concentrated on flying boats. He remained Chairman until his death in 1958.

[Monochrome photograph showing H.V. and A.V. at the Blackpool Aviation week 1909 with the Roe 1 Triplane. Photo displayed copyright Blackpool Gazette.]
Alliott Verdon Roe and his family