Stainless & Rustless Steel Co Ltd [S&RS] was registered at Companies House on 19 October 1915 and listed as a ‘private company with share capital’ (£1,000).  It was a subsidiary of Brown Bayley’s Steel Works Ltd, which was a major Sheffield steel manufacturer in the Don Valley.  The directors of S&RS were Robert Armitage (Brown Bayley’s chairman), Harry Brearley, and Max Reyner Mainprice.   Brearley was the inventor of stainless steel for cutlery, who had joined Brown Bayley’s as works manager in 1915.  Brown Bayley’s began producing two grades of steel: one was “stainless” for cutlery; the other was “rustless” for more general use, where acid-resistance was not a requirement (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 13 November 1915).  

Brown Bayley’s was not a maker of table cutlery, so the mark on this knife simply signifies the maker of the stainless steel.  The Hawley Collection also has a table knife marked ‘Brown Bayley Steels’.

In 1934, S&RS was re-registered with £1,000 capital and Armitage and Brearley as directors (Mainprice had apparently retired).  S&RS continued as a legal entity after the Second World War, when Brown Bayley’s underwent nationalisation / denationalisation and subsequent restructurings and takeovers involving Dunford Elliott / Hadfields.  S&RS was not wound up until 1980, when its business was listed as ‘Property Dealing’.