Gordon Sparrow, along with his elder brothers Alf and George, set up in crane hire in 1949, based at their father’s petrol station in Bath.
GW Sparrow & Sons became the biggest name in crane hire and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1968. It was taken over in 1985 by BET, to become part of Grayston White & Sparrow. In 1996 BET was acquired by Rentokil, which subsequently sold GWS to Ainscough in 2000.
Alf, the oldest brother died in 2012, aged 90. George the middle brother passed away in 2013, aged 89.
A fuller account can be found on the crane news website run by Leigh Sparrow, one of Gordon’s three sons. See www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/25690
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