Beschreibung:

Property from the estate of the late Dennis Halliday Edmund Walter Higley Halliday (1875-1962), born in Reading, Berkshire, was a recognised naval architect and marine motor engineer with a prolific career that spans from 1902 until the early 1950s. He was one of the founder members of the Little Ship Club and was actively involved in providing shore based training in the late 1920s and 1930s to members of the Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve during The Second World War. He started his career at the famous Thornycroft ship building works in Church Warf, Chiswick, with the design of the firm's 40 ft. 1904 motorboat Champak and only one year later entered into partnership with Geale Dickson trading as "Dickson & Halliday Naval Architects & Marine Motor Engineers" in Southampton. In April 1905 he designed and built the Iris for Messrs Perman & Co Ltd. and accepted a wager to run it single handed and non-stop from Southampton to London Bridge, an adventure which was extensively reported in the national press. During these years Dickson & Halliday enjoyed some success at a competitive level. The partnership dissolved in 1907 with Halliday returning to Chiswick and trading from 1909 as "Higley Halliday, Naval Architect & Marine Motor Engineer" where he developed a close working relationship with Frank Maynard who built many of his designs. During the First World War he designed cane and canvas collapsible boats for the War Office, but it was in the 1920s when he resumed his association with Maynard that marked the peak of his career with a variety of designs including harbour launches with fitted petrol/paraffin motors of between 20ft. and 30 ft; experimental steam patrol launches, air-propelled hydroplanes (1925), hydraulic propelled launch (1923) and tug (1923) and an electric launch (1924). By the late '20s and early '30s he was focusing much more on his role as teacher and consultant. A founder-member of the Little Ship Club, he was appointed honorary instructor in seamanship in 1929, where his cheery personality and his aptitude for dealing thoroughly and in an easily understood manner with any branch of the subject led him to lecturing to sometimes up to 120 people - including a strong female following, whilst his interest in motor boats, made him very popular among the younger members of the Club. During this same period, his designs also shifted from bespoke to smaller standardised motor yachts, becoming a popular and affordable option for the mass market and included "Nanona" (1927), "Maralia" (1927), "Sport" (1928) and "Spray" (1930). Kept busy during World War II, his motor yachts Karen II and Bendor were requisitioned as 'Little Ships' in Operation Dynamo, Halliday became a central figure as an instructor to the amateur yachtsmen who formed the Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve (subsequently the London Flotilla) at the Little Ship Club. He was appointed Lieutenant and a "Four Striper" in the R.N.V.R. Sea Cadet Corps and club members presented him with an onyx cigarette box by way of thanks for his services to the club (see lot 230). After the war he retired from an active role although he remained a member of the Thames Ship-lover's Society and The World Ship Society. He died on 27 December 1962 aged 87. THE HIGLEY & DENNIS HALLIDAY 'ARCHIVE' comprising approximately 650 assorted photographs spanning approximately 1895-1965, including private and professional images, some annotated or in albums, marked envelopes, others loose, some duplicates; together with a large amount of documentation, mostly professional, including note books for vessel designs including three for Thompson's 40ft Hydroplane for 1907-9; the S.Y. Varuna (1896-97); S.Y. Gunilda (1897); two notebooks dating 1900-1904 connected to Thornycroft; assorted pre-War sales brochures for Thornycroft; Dixon & Halliday etc.; copies of yachting publications reviewing their products; a quantity of material pertaining to Iris and HH's single-hand