The Dreadnought Casting Reel Company was incorporated on 3^rd May 1909 with three shareholders, Percy Frank Wadham, Albert Percy Scott and Arthur Ernest Wadham. Each holding 25 shares, with the aim of buying the patent from Scott and Wadham, manufacturing and marketing the Meteor reel and other fishing related inventions. Arthur Wadham, brother of Percy, was an auctioneer and furniture retailer but as far as I am aware did not fish, make reels or had any other interest in the company other than financially.

Scott and Wadham had devised and manufactured the meteor reel possibly as long as three years previously and had used it successfully in the various casting tournaments that were the vogue of the day.

The company was based in Newport on the Isle of Wight with both men being residents of the island. Although they knew each other from schooldays it was the invention of a series of weed cutters that possibly brought them together in a business relationship.

There was some individual business activity prior to the official company start-up date, with adverts in the various angling press. In the Fishing Gazette, there were a series of adverts, the 20^th July issue, The Simplex Aquatic Weed Cutter is being offered by Percy Wadham. On 7^th August, the Dreadnought Weed Cutter is being offered by The Lukely Engineering Co. and on 11^th December 1909 the Meteor reel is being offered by the Dreadnought Casting Reel Co. Ltd.

Meanwhile four hundred miles north in Alnwick, Northumberland, minutes of the meeting of the Hardy Bros. board of directors for the 3^rd of June 1909 stated that a draft agreement had been returned to Percy Wadham on 14^th June 1909 for an exchange of licenses between Hardy Bros. and The Dreadnought Casting Reel Co. In my opinion, it was necessary to have the company registered so that the licenses could be signed, these licenses will be examined when discussing the Meteor reel.

Percy Wadham was the managing director and Percy Scott in charge of the reel making department. The manager was a Mr. William Albert George Thicknesse who had worked for Carswell & Co, Farlow & Co and Hardy Brothers in London, before moving to the Island. This was in 1910 but this arrangement did not last long because in the first catalogue, issued in August 1911, his name and a brief background about him were given. The first catalogue also states that their specialities could be inspected and obtained from their representative, Mr. R. C. Luce at 27 Chancery Lane London. This was also the address of George Morris a Solicitor who was later listed as Thicknesse’s next of kin.

The only copy of the 1911 catalogue that I have seen has a pasted piece of paper covering Thickness’s details and the reference to the London showroom. By the time the second catalogue, issued in 1913, came out, his details were completely removed. I understand that the reason he did not stay for long was that Mrs. Wadham did not like him. He moved back to London and started his own retail business in Piccadilly Arcade selling the Carswell Modified Illingworth reel, the Dreadnought Casting Reels Company’s reels and other tackle. In 1915 he closed his business, handed it over to G Little in Haymarket and joined the Army. In 1917, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corp and was discharged in 1919.

I do believe that Scott and Arthur Wadham, two of the three directors, carried on with their own individual business’s and activities, the fact that they were not fully reliant on the success of the Dreadnought Casting Reel Co. meant that it could have been considered as a hobby or a side line. Percy Wadham however needed something else.

Scott and Wadham had a disagreement that resulted in the demise of the company, exactly what the disagreement was about is not known but possibly due to the future direction the company was to take. A few suggestions from the families are that Wadham wanted to sell the company along with the patents but Scott did not want to do either. I understand that Wadham and his brother, with two thirds of the shares, had sold the company before 1914 to Milward who thought that they were buying not only the company but also the patents. Scott refused and with the complexities of the ownership of the patents, the sale fell through.

During the First World War the company, or rather Scott’s engineering company, was involved in making components for the war effort. S E Saunders based at Cowes were involved in the construction of marine and air craft and virtually no tackle was made. At the end of the War, as in every walk of life things changed and the two men went their own way. Maybe Scott was not inclined to pursue the career of a reel maker which would not have paid him anything near what the company was earning from its engineering activities with the military contractors.

It was announced on January 20^th1920 that Wadham had come back from the Admiralty, having “done his bit, and has set the reel running in earnest at the Dreadnought works”. New and interesting novelties were promised that would be due in the spring.  No details were given of exactly what he was doing in the Admiralty. In December 1919, an advert appeared announcing that a new catalogue for the Dreadnought Casting Reel Company would soon be ready. The 1914 edition of the 1913 catalogue has run out in mid 1917. The last advert for the Dreadnought Casting Reel Company was on 13^th December 1919. This was followed by a note in the Anglers News in January 1920 that Percy Wadham was ready to start the Dreadnought Casting Reel Company again.