aircraft engines and airframes with the assistance of distinguished staff from the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough as well as motor vehicles including ambulances using Rover chassis and Daimler and Aster engines and employed around 5,000 workers. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1918 New Year Honours for his industrial services during the war. In 1918 John Siddeley and his family moved to Crackley Hall, Kenilworth. The same building later became St Joseph's School and is now Crackley Hall School. Armstrong Siddeley Motors Siddeley arranged a takeover of Siddeley-Deasy's motorcar, aircraft engine and aircraft business by Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth and Co Ltd and its amalgamation with the Armstrong Whitworth motor department in 1919. They renamed their new entity Armstrong Siddeley Motors. It was to continue until 1960. Siddeley's new holding company established Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft in July 1920. Armstrong Siddeley Motors were enthusiastic adopters of light alloys for engines. This was a common enough approach for aircraft engines, but Armstrong-Siddeley were also early at applying them to motor cars. To provide a supply of the most sophisticated new alloys for pistons, Siddeley funded Wallace Charles Devereux to set up High Duty Alloys Ltd. in 1927, as a replacement for Peter Hooker, who had gone into liquidation. Next Siddeley took advantage of parent companies Armstrong's and Vickers' financial difficulties of the mid 1920s and by 1927 he had gained control of all three Siddeley businesses. He remained their chairman until 1935 when, at the age of 70, he arranged his last takeover with Hawker Aircraft who formed Hawker Siddeley though the Siddeley businesses kept their identities. From this arrangement he received "£1 million and numerous benefits". Peerage Siddeley was knighted in 1932 when he served as High Sheriff of Warwickshire. Sir John Siddeley was elected president of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders for 1937–1938 – the highest honour the British Motor Industry could bestow. That same year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Kenilworth, of Kenilworth in the County of Warwick. He was also elected president of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors for 1932–1933—now Society of British Aerospace Companies— and elected president of the Engineering and Allied Employers' National Federation for 1935–1936. On his retirement he bought and gave to the nation the historic Kenilworth Castle. To commemorate the coronation of King George