William Harvey du Cros was a Dublin-born financier who became the founder of the pneumatic tyre industry by supporting development of the innovations of John Boyd Dunlop and mass-producing Dunlop's tyres. Later in life du Cros was described by the Revue Franco-Anglaise as dapper, below middle height and of robust build with an expressive face and a high forehead. Quite modest and of a retiring disposition his pleasant open face invited friendship and confidence. He seemed to have a ready willingness to listen. Just 65 inches tall and a noted athlete in his youth, he remained an enthusiastic cyclist and a skilful boxer into his middle age. He was briefly a Conservative Party politician of England.
Early career
Son of Edouard Pierre du Cros who was of French Huguenot descent and Maria Molloy he was educated at The King's Hospital, Dublin. He married Annie Jane Roy in 1866 when he was just 20. Advised when aged 30 to take up sport for the sake of his health he made himself Ireland's boxing champion at two weights and Ireland's fencing champion as well as founding and captaining a team which won the Irish Rugby championship. By the time he reached his late-twenties du Cros had formed his six sons into a successful team of racing cyclists, The Invincibles. The team rode on solid tyred penny farthing bicycles. He was made president of the Irish Cyclists' Association.
Two of his sons were beaten in a cycle race by a little-fancied competitor using John Boyd Dunlop's rudimentary pneumatic tyres. Seeing a commercial opportunity du Cros, now well known in Irish business circles and president of the Irish Cyclist's Association, managed to be invited to form a public listed company to exploit Dunlop's innovations. Friends of du Cros: J. M. Gillies and Dublin cycle agent William Bowden, also persuaded John Boyd Dunlop to join them to promote the new company. With his financial expertise du Cros successfully floated the company's shares keeping all arrangements under his own control. In 1896, du Cros sold that company to a group of people including Ernest T. Hooley for 3 million pounds. The business was then refloated to the public as Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company in May 1896. Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company produced its first car tyre in 1900, considerably after Michelin. Later it began to diversify into aircraft tyres and golf balls. Du Cros helped finance the British army's first airship and organised the first motorized movement of British troops.
Sons
Within a month of the foundation of the business his sons were recruited to be scattered to the four corners of the globe. They quartered the globe going wherever a cycle business existed.
Born in Dublin 15 March 1872 the son of Harvey du Cros and his wife Annie Jane Roy he was one of six sons. His father sent him from England to America in 1892, still aged 19, to found a pneumatic tyre business there but he was unable to sign the necessary deeds until his 21st birthday. He formed a long enduring link with what became the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. He later left his father's Dunlop business founding the Swift Motor Company and the Yellow Cab Company. He was also the importer of Mercedes motorcars to Britain beginning when few cars were made in Britain. With Frank Kayser of Kayser Ellison Steel a major backer of Herbert Austin when Austin formed his own business he was deputy chairman of the Austin Motor Company and held many other directorships. He died 1 November 1928 in Longwood Maidenhead and was interred at Finstock Oxfordshire. Du Cros co-owned the Motor Power Company with S. F. Edge and they imported the French Clement-Gladiator cars, often known as Gladiators, into the UK.
