Bowers & Wilkins P1 (1966)

Born in 1922, John Bowers was 17 at the outbreak of World War II. He joined the Royal Corps of Signals as a special operations executive, and was in clandestine radio contact with allied resistance operatives in occupied Europe. He was based at the worldfamous Bletchley Park, and spent time behind enemy lines. It was during his time with the armed forces that he met Roy Wilkins, and after Bowers left the army and studied Telecommunications Engineering in Brighton, the two became business partners in a Worthing retail shop specialising in radios and televisions. Over the next 20 years Bowers spent time modifying and then designing loudspeakers in the converted garages at the rear of the shop, and by 1966, John Bowers was ready to set up B&W Electronics specifically to design and build loudspeakers, with close friend and new business partner Peter Hayward, who had joined the Bowers & Wilkins retail team in the 1950s.

The P1’s cabinet and filter were B&W’s own, but the drivers came from EMI and Celestion. The profits from the P1 allowed Bowers to purchase a Radiometer Oscillator and Pen Recorder, meaning that every speaker the company sold could have calibration certificates.