The Sopwith Aviation Company founded in Kingston upon Thames by Thomas Octave Murdoch (Tommy, later Sir Thomas) Sopwith in June 1912. The company's first factory premises opened that December in a recently closed roller skating rink in Canbury Park Road near Kingston Railway Station in South West London. An early collaboration with the S. E. Saunders boatyard of East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, in 1913, produced the Sopwith "Bat Boat", an early flying boat with a Consuta laminated hull which could operate on sea or land. A small factory subsequently opened in Woolston, Hampshire in 1914.

Thomas Sopwith was born on January 18, 1888.

Thomas Sopwith was born on January 18, 1888.

Thomas Sopwith died on January 27, 1989 at the age of 101.

Thomas Sopwith died on January 27, 1989 at the age of 101.