Excerpt:
Most aeronautical histories treat the Bristol Aeroplane Company and its predecessor, the British & Colonial Aeroplane Company, as though they were vast, faceless industrial conglomerates.
But like the aeronautical companies set up by Handley Page, A.V. Roe, Sopwith, de Havilland, Vickers, Blackburn and Rolls, Bristol was the product of one man's vision. His determination to bring honour to his native city, led him to fight the Board of Trade for the right to name his craft "Bristol", rather than naming them after himself. He was the self made entrepreneur, tramway pioneer, stockbroker, industrialist and philanthropist, Sir George White Bt., LLD.,JP. (1854-1916)