Armstrong Statue

Statue of Lord William Armstrong (1810-1900) in front of the Great North Museum: Hancock

William George Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Cragside CB FRS (26 November 1810 – 27 December 1900) was an English industrialist who founded the Armstrong Whitworth manufacturing concern on Tyneside. He was also an eminent scientist, inventor and philanthropist. In collaboration with the architect Richard Norman Shaw, he built Cragside in Northumberland, the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. He is regarded as the inventor of modern artillery.

Armstrong was knighted in 1859 after giving his gun patents to the government. In 1887, in Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee year, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Armstrong of Cragside, becoming the first engineer – and, indeed, the first scientist – to join the House of Lords.