If you read accounts of “local history” of this company in the 1980’s and early 90’s you would think that Albright and Wilson the company had won the Second World War single handed. Accounts of their Home Guard, the production of the useless AW bombs and how the works was organised , I have taken apart using factual evidence of these rose tinted views.
Much of this was public relations garbage from a dying firm, still trying to be relevant, who “made chemicals for industry” but did little to ingratiate themselves to the local populace that they gassed.
Strangely, works manager liars like Peter Bloore were not so keen to give this info to consultancies like Cremer and Warner, who in 1990 undertook a deeply flawed assessment of the rattlechain lagoon site on behalf of the Black Country Development Corporation. NOT A SINGLE MENTION OF ALBRIGHT AND WILON’S WAR RECORD AND WHAT IT PRODUCED AS A MILITARY SUPPLIER WAS MENTIONED IN THIS REPORT, OR THE WASTES THAT IT GENERATED AS AN MINISTRY OF SUPPLY (MOS) FACTORY.
Yet when the French Rhodia brand took over at Trinity Street, they did not want to talk about the war record of A&W it seems either.
The story below from the very early days of the war is one that you will not find in any local history books, and one which does not appear in the company history of 1951 either, where most of the recycled garbage appearing in the 80’s/90’s was lifted. Perhaps they wanted to airbrush it out of history, or strike it from the record books if you will excuse the pun. I am quite surprised that it was even published at this time and not censored, in case copy cat attacks occurred, or any Nazi spies were emboldened to do similar.
The London Daily News of 21st October 1939 reported that James Pinel, a munitions worker at the newly created factory had been charged with effectively trying to sabotage apparatus by inserting match heads into the process. The motive does not appear to have been that of a Nazi, or even IRA sympathiser, (but who can tell), but one of attempting to ingratiate himself to works management by “finding” the sabotage and reporting it. A Munchausen’s by proxy type of affair you may say?
The Evening Dispatch of a day earlier gives much more detail of the case involving the 26 year old from Langley. Though it is not explicitly stated here, the “highly inflammable material” was almost certainly white phosphorus, and the plant which made the UK’s only production of the chemical.
Match heads had been placed in the hoppers, which started fires, and more were placed which did not catch fire.
After reading this, and the apparent confession, it appears that Pinel was a very silly man child indeed. A 14 year sentence was on the cards for this type of offence, as he awaited trial.
The 5th December 1939 Evening Dispatch reports on the outcome in that the former seaman had been found guilty and received a three year sentence.
During the trial it appeared that Pinel had a streak for arson, as fires had also occurred on a ship he was on in 1933. It is stated that the budding Guy Fawkes was “worried” about being called up for military service, and that he was not “a normal” man.
WARTIME CONTEXT
The winds of War in 1939 increased demand for phosphorus. The National Archives at Kew offer some insights into the Oldbury factory activities in the early days.
The production of phosphorus munitions during World War One was a major task of the company. A 1922 agreement between the war office and Albright and Wilson dated 28/11/1922, which was still in force throughout the period of the Second World War provided inter alia that
“(a)The company will execute all orders placed by the Admiralty, War Office, and Air Ministry for:-
(i)Supply of phosphorus
(ii)smoke charging of projectiles, bombs, grenades or other phosphorus containers for warlike purposes.” AVIA 22/2938 MINUTE SHEET NO1
This agreement also gave AW preferential rights to undertake any work for this type of activity so long as the company could provide the capacity and undertake the work punctually.
The following National Archives document confirms the situation in September 1939, when Pinel was at work with the outbreak of war. It confirms that Albright and Wilson were already supplying The French War department with phosphorus, that they were the sole producers in the UK, and that at this time stocks were considerably lower than required for a range of tasks.
©Copyright The National Archives, reproduced by permission to
http://whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk/
If Pinel’s activities had succeeded albeit with unintended consequences, there could have been a very serious blow to the production of phosphorus in the country. German bombs never found the subsequently renamed MOS factory.