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Updated 16/04/01 at 6:05 (Eastern Australian time).
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Walter Robinson Swann (1900-1980)

Son of Walter Morton Swann. Although he was born in Sheffield and lived and worked in Sheffield for most of his life, by his own account Walter still regarded himself as a Fenland man. As a boy, after his father's death, Walter lived with his mother and aunt Fanny at "Westwood" The Avenue; March and with his grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Swann at 129 Creek Road, March.

Walter gained a scholarship at a Sheffield Grammar school where he stayed until, at age sixteen, he became an apprentice engineer to a Sheffield Firm. In 1923 he worked in a razor blade machinery building. Here he was taught by another youngster (Miss Doris. Fairweather) how to make razor blades. He than became a manager in another firm.

In 1932 he started his business with Miss Fairweather and other girls he had known since 1923. He had one hundred & fifty pounds as capital and only twelve pounds in the bank to start the first week's work. The rented premises were so small the girls had to do all the packing in the street.

Forty six years later in 1978, Walter and Miss Fairweather (later Mrs Thorpe) claimed they had the largest surgical blade manufacturing Company in the world, exporting to every country except the U.S.S.R. and mainland China. Swann-Morton employed approximately 150 staff who all hold -shares in the Company and receive substantial dividends regularly. The machinery used to. manufacture the blades, except for a few polishers etc. was designed, mostly by Walter, and made on the premises. The factory is surrounded by beautiful gardens and is known to the locals as "the factory in the garden",

A radiation unit is used to sterilise the surgical blades in the final stage of manufacture. Swann-Morton & Co. was the first privately owned British Company to install a radiation unit.

Walter was a remarkable man who was way ahead of his time when it came to staff relations, business philosophy and political awareness. He donated large amounts of money to charities and to the Royal Collage of Surgeons. During his lifetime he gave forty nine percent of his company to his workers and forty nine percent to a charitable trust that he set up, while he & Mrs Thorp retained one percent each. His workers were very loyal to him and the company.

In 1978 two of his managers said that for the past twenty five years he had never put up the price of his products. His method of operation was to design and build a machine to do a job more efficiently, then, when it was working, he would leave its operation to the managers. (Mrs Thorp was renowned for being able pull apart all the machines in the factory and repair them.) Walter would go off and design a new machine.

Some time during the 1960s Walter ventured into the orchard business by setting up Swann-Morton (Growers) Ltd. The district office was at "Swann-Morton, Smeeth Road Nr. Wisbech, Cambs. This is in the Fenland area north of March.

Walter lived in flat that occupied one corner of the factory at Penn Works, Owlerton Green, Sheffield. He married when he was young but the marriage did not last long.

Curiously, Walter told us in 1978, that the "Morton" part of the of the company name came about because he wanted a double barrel name to help him compete with a company in the USA that had a double barrel name - so he used his Grandmother's maiden name. He said there never was a "Morton" in the company. This does not agree with the official Swann-Morton Web site which states the company was founded by Mr WR Swann, Miss D Fairweather and Mr JA Morton. Visit the Swann-Morton Web Site for more on the company's history, and Walter's founding principles.