C. A. Parsons and Company

C. A. Parsons and Company was a British engineering firm which was once one of the largest employers on Tyneside. The company became Reyrolle Parsons in 1968, merged with Clarke Chapman to form Northern Engineering Industries in 1977, and became part of Rolls-Royce in 1989. Today the company is part of Siemens Energy. History The company was founded by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1889 to produce steam turbines, his own invention. At the beginning of the 20th century, the company was producing up to 50 turbines a year at its factory in Heaton in Newcastle upon Tyne. Charles Algernon Parsons' son Algernon George "Tommy" Parsons joined the company as a director, but when he was called up for military service in the First World War, he was replaced by his sister, Rachel Mary Parsons, who was one of the first women to study engineering at University of Cambridge. During the First World War, the Parsons’ Works on Shields Road employed a large number of women on the factory floor. Following her brother's death during the war, Rachel Parsons did not resume her role as a director of the Heaton Works.