Yarrow, Sir Alfred, First Baronet
YARROW, SIR ALFRED, FIRST BARONET
YARROW, SIR ALFRED, FIRST BARONET (1842–1932), British shipbuilder. Yarrow was the son of an Anglican merchant; his mother, Esther Lindo, came from an old Sephardi family. Yarrow was educated at University College School, London, and was then apprenticed to a marine engineer. The firm he founded in the 1860s, Alfred Yarrow & Co., became one of the leading naval boat builders in the world, producing 29 destroyers and many gunboats and other vessels for the Royal Navy. Yarrow pioneered the torpedo boat as well as a variety of important innovations in ships' boilers and propellers and introduced aluminum and other lightweight materials into ship design. In 1906–8 he moved his works from London to the River Clyde near Glasgow. He gave very substantial sums to charity and in 1916 was made a baronet (a hereditary knight.) His son sir harold yarrow, Second Baronet (1884–1962), was chairman of the firm for 40 years.
bibliography:
odnb online; B. Baxter, "Alfred Fernandez Yarrow," in: A. Slaven and S. Checkland (eds.), Dictionary of Scottish Business Biography 1860 – 1960, i (1986), 245–47; A. Borthwick, Yarrow & Co. Ltd., 1865 – 1977 (1977).
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]