The original Anzani Moteurs d’Aviation was situated at 112 Boulevard de Courbevoie, Courbevoie, Paris and opened for business in 1907.

The British Anzani Engine Company was an agency of the original French operation and the first premises were established on November 20th 1912 in Scrubbs Lane, Willesden, London NW10. The majority shareholder was General Aviation Contractors a company which had been established in 1911 under Mr Ridley Prentice to supply aircraft and spares for the emerging British aviation market and which already handled the sales of the French built Anzani motors. They had been given 1500 £1 shares as compensation for the loss of their sole rights.

British Anzani was then solely concerned with making aero engines which were sold from the salesrooms of General Aviation Contractors in Regent Street, London and constructed by Coventry Ordnance Works Ltd., an engineering company known for their contract engineering skills.

The first chairman of the new company was Dominic L. Santoni a former director of British Deperdussin and listed in the company documentation as an ‘aviator’. Many of his fellow directors also had aviation in their blood. Lt. J.C. Porte was a naval officer and well known pilot who had connections with the American company Curtiss as well as also being a former British Deperdussin director. W.R. Prentice was the third director with flying experience as was Captain J.C. Halahan (Royal Dublin Fusiliers and R.A.F.) and Claude Schofield. Schofield’s Anzani career wasn’t longlived as his name was removed from the company records in 1913 with the word ‘dismissed’ crossed out and ‘resigned’ entered over it!

The original capital investment of £10,000 was enhanced by another £12,000 raised on a debenture in 1915. In December 1916 Hubert Hagens joined the board along with accountant Richard Simpkin. Hagens was a Belgian motorcycle racer and an extremely talented engine designer. The engines he designed and his influence on the company would be significant.

Another important arrival was Gustave Maclure. ‘Mac’ Maclure had joined the company as Works Manager in 1917 from Rolls Royce car division where he had been employed as head of the testing department at only 25 years of age. The addition of Maclure strengthened considerably the engineering expertise available at British Anzani and many rated his talent among the very best in the British engineering industry at the time. He had been brought into the company to oversee the production of the 5 and 10 cylinder aero engines and stayed to design possibly their most successful engine, the 11.9 hp side-valve car engine.

There were many comings and goings at board level and another well known executive was it’s general manager Mr A.M. Ramsay (who was later also MD of the British Caudron aircraft company of Cricklewood and Alloa from 1914-24). There is evidence of a significant alliance with British Caudron and this sharing of directors may be illustrative of that.

After World War I the British aviation industry contracted and consolidated behind the larger companies and many of the smaller firms disappeared. One of these was British Caudron who made no aircraft after 1919 and eventually went into receivership in 1924. In the depths of the War though they had needed more engines and had given British Anzani the finance to expand and build a production capability at their Willesden site. This led to their most productive year of the war delivering 107 100hp models. Later, a change in buying policy by the Allies meant fewer companies supplying the War effort effectively freezing out the smaller contributors and by February 1918 British Anzani had all but given up trying to compete in the aero engine business. They were still making spares for Curtiss however and doing development work for the Government. They refurbished and repaired old engines and were desperately trying to gain contracts for new engines - and it was with these brand new engines that British Anzani faced the post-war challenge.

One of these engines was to be a Hagens designed 35hp 60° V-twin of 1,100cc which eventually found applications in motorcycles, light cars and aircraft right up until the start of the Second World War. It was based on a 500cc single cylinder French Anzani engine that had been sent over just after the War but Hubert Hagens development skills produced a marvellously powerful engine that appeared in a multiplicity of formats over the next 15 years. It was this little engine that took Claude Temple to a land speed record on two wheels in 1923 and powered AJW, OEC, McEvoy, Trump and Montgomery motorcycles, Morgan sports cars and a score of different types of light aircraft.

The engine had first appeared in 1921 and British Anzani finally ceased to produce the engine themselves in 1938 saying that it was “due to a rush of sub-contract orders and the fact that a new light aero engine is in the design stage.” It was however surplus to requirements although they did continue to manufacture small numbers on behalf of Luton Aircraft until that company’s demise during the war.