Aircraft designer and manufacturer, born in 1877 in Patricroft, Manchester, known as Alliott Verdon-Roe. Roe left school at fifteen and in 1893 he became an apprentice at the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway locomotive works, afterwards studying marine engineering at King's College, London. In 1899 he joined the British and South African Royal Mail Company. During his last voyage in 1902, he became fascinated with flight and began making flying models in his spare time. In 1907 Roe won £75 in a model aeroplane competition. He used the money to build a full-sized copy of his model. After fitting a more powerful engine in 1908, he managed a number of short flights at Brooklands; this was the first time a British designed and built aeroplane had flown. In January 1910 his brother, Humphrey Verdon Roe helped to found A. V. Roe & Co. in Manchester. In 1911 he designed the first enclosed cabin aeroplane, which flew in 1912 and was entered in the British military trials that year. In October 1912 it established a British flying record of seven and a half hours. In the following year Roe designed and built the famous Avro 504 which became the best-known military aeroplane of the First World War. An Avro 504 carried out a raid on the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen on 21 November 1914, which was the first air raid in the history of warfare. The plane was revolutionary in its design and in 1917 it became the standard trainer and for a quarter of a century. Business declined after the war and Roe sold the controlling interest in A. V. Roe & Co. to the Armstrong Siddeley Motor Company in 1928. Roe and two other investors bought an interest in the boat builder Saunders Ltd, of Cowes. The name was changed to Saunders-Roe and Roe remained president of the company for the rest of his life. Alliott Roe was knighted in 1929n 8 June 1928. He restyled his name to Verdon-Roe in 1933. He died at St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth, on 4 January 1958.

The Daily Mail is a British national newspaper, first published as a broadsheet in 1896 by Alfred Harmsworth, later made 1st Viscount Northcliffe. The newspaper was formed as the result of a merger between the Hull Packet and The Hull Evening News. Harmsworth and his brother Harold edited and managed the paper. From 1900 the paper was printed simultaneously in London and Manchester. By 1902 circulation had reached over one million, placing amongst the top-selling newspapers of the day. The Daily Mail has been published by the Daily Mail and General Trust since 1922, when the trust was created to oversee the Harmsworth family's media interests. In 1929 Esmond Harmsworth, son of Harold, took over the Chairmanship, alongside the 2nd Lord Rothermere. Under their aegis the trust was floated on the stock exchange in 1932. In the 1930s the paper supported fascism, with favourable reporting on Mussolini, Hitler and Oswald Moseley's Blackshirts - The British Union of Fascists. The postwar years saw the launch of a Scottish edition of the Mail, in 1946. Initially printed in Edinburgh, then Manchester, the paper was moved to Glasgow in 1995. The Mail went from broadsheet to tabloid format in 1971. In the same year it took over The Daily Sketch. The 3rd Lord Rothermere, Vere Harmsworth, became Chair of the Daily Mail and General Trust in 1978. He was succeeded by his son Jonathan Harmsworth in 1998. This period saw the launch of a sister paper, The Mail on Sunday, in 1982. The Mail stopped being printed in Manchester in 1987. Today the Mail is Britain's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its headquarters are currently at 2 Northcliffe House, London. Its online presence, MailOnline, reaches a global audience. Recent editors include Paul Dacre, and Geordie Greig, who succeeded him in 2018.