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Fairmile Marine

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Fairmile Marine was a British boat building company founded in 1939 by the car manufacturer Noel Macklin.

Macklin used the garage at his home at Cobham Fairmile in Surrey for manufacturing assembly which is why the boats he designed came to be called Fairmiles.

As a former Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve officer, he was inspired to turn his talents and his technical staff to producing boats after reading an article by Vice-Admiral Cecil Vivian Usborne.

After his first designs were accepted and ordered by the Admiralty, Macklin found he had insufficient capital. To solve the problem the Fairmile company became an agency of the Admiralty with Usborne as one of the directors.[1] As a result, the company carried out business without turning a profit, the staff being in effect part of the civil service.

Many Fairmile Bs were built in Commonwealth countries: 80 in Canada, 12 in New Zealand, and six in South Africa.

Boats designed

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Class Type Designation Built Number built Penant numbers
Fairmile A Motor Launch ML 1940 12 ML 100 to ML 111
Fairmile B Motor Launch
Air Sea Rescue
ML
ASR
1940–42
1940–45
616
668
Fairmile C Motor Gun Boat MGB 1940–41 24 MGB 312 – MGB 335
Fairmile D Motor Gun Boat
MGB / MTB
Motor Torpedo Boat
MGB
MGB / MTB
MTB
1942–43
1942–43
1943–44
95
229
134
Fairmile F Motor Torpedo Boat MTB 1944 One (experimental)
Fairmile H Landing Craft Infantry
Landing Craft Support
LCI (S)
LCS (L)
40
10
501–540
251–260

References

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  • Lambert, John and Ross, Al . Allied Coastal Forces of World War Two, Volume I : Fairmile designs and US Submarine Chasers. 1990. ISBN 978-0-85177-519-7.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, the Lord Chancellor (14 June 1945). "Questions in the House of Lords - Government Directorships". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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