History

The Hamworthy Combustion story began in the first years of the last century when an entrepreneur named Percy Francis Hall returned from Mexico with a sombrero hat and the money he had accumulated during five years abroad working as an oil exploration engineer. The outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1911 had prompted him to come home and settle in Poole, where he began Hall’s Engineering - a Marine Engine and boat repair business.

By 1914 ‘Hall’s Engineering’ had changed to ‘Hamworthy Engineering Company Limited’ following its incorporation as a limited company. It then had a share capital of £1,450 and a complement of 6 employees!

Over the next century the company, survived the setbacks of two World Wars and the great depression and steadily expanded - to emerge as a worldwide market leader in the field of engineering and combustion solutions.

The strategic acquisitions of Airoil-Flaregas and Peabody Engineering led to their technologies being encompassed within Hamworthy Combustion Engineering Limited allowing the company to build on its already broad product portfolio.

In 1995 a strategy was devised which would allow the three main divisions of the company to operate independently, and so the Combustion, Marine and Compressor divisions took control of their own destiny and Hamworthy Combustion Engineering Ltd was born.

Today, in the twenty-first century Hamworthy Combustion is a global company with 800 employees in 18 locations worldwide - but our base is still in Poole, in the South of England where Percy Hall first founded the company.