Edward Lisle

Note:  although linked to pages of Lisle family history provided by a member of the family, this page is quite independently produced and is not in any way endorsed by the Lisle family.

It is difficult to assess Edward Lisle as a business man. It seems to be agreed that he was a fine craftsman, that he was interested in and developed new inventions and that he had an enthusiasm for the opportunities they might offer. The most notable example is that he turned Star from cycles to cars at a very early stage in the development of the British motor industry. He also seems to have been a good judge of who to employ, particularly on the technical side of his business. An allegation made against him is that he persisted with his high grade luxury cars when the market was turning against them. But this cannot really be the case: it may be true of his sons, who inherited both the business and his interest is high class engineering, but it cannot be proved of Edward Lisle, who died before any such production and market changes were developed in Britain. It is also alleged that he too much favoured his sons. One modern writer goes so far as to call this "an ugly display of nepotism". But that was not the thinking of the day, nor even of today. One might as well accuse a landowner, who has his sons help run his estate, of ugly nepotism. Lisle’s faith in his own sons may have been misplaced – but even if it was, that is another matter. The fact remains that Lisle established and built up one of the biggest and most successful enterprises of the time and it was and remained a family business until its last days.

It is even more difficult to assess Edward Lisle as a man. There is little hard information but many rumours and stories. It has been said that, when Lisle dissolved the original partnership, Sharratt felt cheated. There is no evidence of this, no evidence that Lisle was ruthless to the point of dishonesty - or at all. Whilst it is not clear what Sharratt did after the dissolution other than continue to make bikes, he appears at later dates in several of the Lisle family photographs in the company of Edward Lisle; so apparently there was not a personal falling out between them.

Clearly Lisle was a man of great physical energy – amongst other things he had been a successful cycle racer in his younger days. He also had enormous mental energy. He seized new ideas and made quick decisions. A small example is that at the aviation meeting held at Dunstall Park in 1910, on the first day the pilots went on strike because it was rumoured that their hotel bills would not be paid. Lisle, on hearing of this, immediately guaranteed them their expenses and the meeting went on.

In reminiscences of working with Star, written by Wally Marsh (and published in a magazine which I have not been able to identify), it becomes clear that Teddy was on first names terms with nearly all his employees. They respected him, not least because he knew that he was not a manager who merely gave orders but was someone who could do the shop floor jobs himself. He knew what he was talking about.

Take, for example, this anecdote about "old Bill, one of his near 80 year old pensioners who had worked for him since his early cycle manufacturing days, and who insisted on turning up for work each morning in the usual way. It would have broken his heart to send him home and forbid him the factory, so he was allowed to potter around. One day Teddy was rampaging through the factory in his normal hurricane fashion when old Bill got in his hair over something or other and Teddy officially sacked him on the spot and told him not to show his face inside the factory again. Some days later he came across old Bill pottering around as usual. "What the devil are you doing here?" he roared. "Didn’t I sack you the other day?". "You did" said Bill, "but if you don’t know when you’ve got a good workman, I know when I’ve got a good master and I ain’t bloody well going to be sacked".

The workers knew that Lisle, like many men of great drive, operated on a short fuse. But like many men of quick temper, the flare up was soon forgotten and, apart from a wounded amour propre, his workmen did not seem to suffer permanent damage.

Wally Marsh records that "[in] appearance he was of medium build with dark complexion and penetrating black eyes which could flash dangerously at the slightest provocation. …. He was a rather terrifying figure when he went charging around the works, but they all had the greatest respect and a curious liking for him. They understood what made him tick and he understood them. He was referred to by all and sundry as "Teddy". Although there were several hundreds of them he knew practically every one of his workmen by name. [H]e was a craftsman of the first order and, even at the time I knew him, when he was Chairman and Managing Director of The Star Engineering Co. Ltd., if he was dissatisfied with the way a workman was doing a job he would take the tool from his hands and, to the accompaniment of some extremely picturesque language, would demonstrate exactly how it should be done".

It is only recently that many employers have been prevented from sacking people they have appointed to jobs they were not able to do. Lisle’s driving energy dictated this kind of on the spot training when, as similar reminiscences show, another motor manufacturer, John Marston, simply told the offending workman "Get your coat".

Another of Marsh’s anecdotes is worth repeating. "By 1912, the factory of the Star Engineering Co. Ltd. was spread across several of the little streets in the Frederick Street area. One day Teddy was talking to me at the rear entrance to the Briton Motor Co. Ltd. - formed in May, 1909 - when around the corner on the other side of the street came two of the Star's oldest employees, Bill and Charlie, both aged nearly eighty. They were really incapable of doing a day's work and their main occupation was the lubrication of the plummet blocks on the line shafting in the various workshops. For this they were provided with a light ten foot ladder. These two invariably moved around in tandem formation, heads thrust forward, eyes on the ground, with Bill in front and Charlie a couple of yards behind. Seeing them moving slowly along, old Teddy barked out in his usual abrupt manner, "Hey! Bill, what are you doing?" Both shot up like startled deer and Bill stammered: "Taking a ladder over to the machine shop, sir." Another bark: "What are you doing, Charlie?" Looking completely out of touch Charlie replied: "Helping Bill to carry the ladder, sir." It slowly dawned on Bill that something wasn't quite as it should be. His jaw dropped and he turned to Charlie: "Good God. Charlie, we've forgot the bloody ladder."

Lisle’s willingness to keep on men somewhat past their prime redounds to his credit. Another worker remembers a workman at Star having a blazing row with Lisle on the shop floor. As the workman knew was inevitable, he was sacked. He was also pretty certain that he would have got his job back next day but instead he went down the street and was given another job. The other job was at Briton, another Lisle company.

In 1902 The Wolverhampton Journal remarked that "Mr. Lisle has not hitherto taken much part in public life, the demands made upon him in the control of his numerous business affairs having engaged his whole attention. Locally he plays a great part in social and philanthropic movements and many of our readers will not be surprised to know that Mr. Lisle was the donor of the clock and bells to St. Luke’s church, Blakenhall". It should be remembered that the "public life" that Lisle as not taking part in was local politics. He never seems to have been interested in joining the patrician industrialists of Wolverhampton, such as Mander, Meadowes and Marston. And Lisle did not much advertise what he did do. For example for Jubilee Day 1897 he provided a band and fireworks for the children at the Royal Orphanage, in addition to his contribution to the Diamond Jubilee Fund. He was a Vice-President of the Royal Orphanage, an honour reserved for that Institution’s biggest subscribers.

Edward Lisle was a man of great physical and mental energy. He drove himself and expected others to do the same. In the end this fiery man burnt out.

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