Rebbeck, Sir Frederick (Ernest) (1877–1964), shipbuilder and marine engineer, was born near Swindon, Wiltshire, only son of Albert Ernest Rebbeck and Jeanette Rebbeck. He was educated privately, serving his engineering apprenticeship in the English midlands, followed by employment at the Lagan Foundry of Victor Coates & Co., Belfast, and at Harland & Wolff (H&W) shipyards, Belfast's biggest engineering employer. He spent some time at British Westinghouse in Manchester, then moved (c.1925) to H&W's Clyde works in Glasgow. His career accelerated within the firm until in 1930 he took over all its interests from Sir Owen Cosby Philipps (Lord Kylsant) who in 1924 had succeeded William Pirrie (qv) as chief executive and chairman of a firm perilously in debt, chiefly to the Midland Bank. During a world depression Rebbeck inherited deep industrial unrest and a financial crisis, which in 1931 earned Cosby Philipps a prison sentence for concealment of accounts. Tacking cautiously between the firm's unhappy creditors (who imposed watchdog directors on the board) and the interventionist Stormont government, Rebbeck steered H&W through the lean 1930s, diversifying (e.g. into the aircraft manufacturing merger of Short Brothers & Harland, 1936) to secure contracts, marine or otherwise, including diesel locomotives, in whose production Rebbeck took a close personal interest.
His survival strategy made H&W utterly dependent on forces and personalities outside his control, and probably sealed the fate of any hopes of industrial harmony under such personal pressure to achieve results. As a harbour commissioner himself, Rebbeck was instrumental in having Belfast harbour and port enlarged ahead of wartime demands, which in 1939–45 revitalised the yards for a few hectic years. By now his eldest son Denis managed the Abercorn ordnance factory, a subsidiary of H&W, which specialised in making gun barrels. Rebbeck was knighted in 1941, the year the firm suffered loss of over half its production capacity by German bombing, though by 1944 it was achieving record tonnage. Rebbeck owed more to fate and fortune than merely surviving the Luftwaffe: the NI prime minister Basil Brooke (qv) sought his replacement over lost production, caused by alleged mismanagement linked to industrial unrest. When the Midland Bank appointed an interim chairman in 1943–5, the reduced burden allowed Rebbeck to focus on improving war production.
Postwar business remained buoyant until the early 1950s as Rebbeck and son anticipated strong foreign competition, largely from rebuilt German and Japanese yards. Although failing to attract state development funding until the mid 1960s, they presided over relatively successful output within the local market, outstripping other UK yards in postwar production. Sir Frederick (KBE, 1953) remained in control until 1962, as his son rose in his wake. He held several other posts of responsibility in his career, notably directorships of Heaton Tabb & Co. of London and Liverpool, Short Brothers & Harland Ltd, Belfast, and, in retirement, Colvilles Ltd, Ocean Transport Ltd, and the Watertight Door Co. Ltd, all from 1962. In addition, he sat on the general committee of Lloyd's Register of Shipping and the Shipbuilding Conference Executive Board. He was past president of the Shipbuilding Employers’ Federation, and vice-president of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects. His memberships included the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, the Iron and Steel Institute, the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, the Institute of Metals, the Institute of Fuel, the Liverpool Engineering Society, and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, New York. Sir Frederick was a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, a JP, a DL, and a D.Sc. He lived at Sandown House, Knock, in suburban Belfast with his wife, Amelia Letitia (m. 1907), daughter of Robert Glover; they had two sons and three daughters. He died at home 27 June 1964 and was buried privately.
Sir Frederick's eldest son and second child, Denis Rebbeck (1914–94), shipbuilder and marine engineer, was born 22 January 1914 in Belfast and educated (1922–32) at Campbell College, Belfast. He followed in his father's footsteps, first by studying mechanical sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he rowed and played rugby. He graduated BA (Hons) in 1935, ambitious for practical experience yet continuing to build an impressive academic record over the next fifteen years. After graduation he joined H&W, remaining an employee until 1970, but cut his engineering teeth with the Danish firm Burmeister & Wain, building marine diesel engines under licence in Belfast. He graduated MA from Cambridge (1939). At H&W, while his father coped as chief executive with demands for increased war production, Denis managed the Abercorn ordnance factory subsidiary, producing heavy gun barrels with his own advanced welding method. In 1943 he received the Ackroyd Stuart award of the Institute of Marine Engineers, and in 1946 became an assistant manager at H&W. While he remained in his father's shadow, his large size and gregarious personality won him the affectionate title ‘Big Denis’ among management and staff.
He modernised Belfast shipbuilding in spite of union troubles and endemic sectarianism, innovating to protect the city's leading industry and employer against resurgent continental and Asian competition. For portraying Northern Ireland in a positive light at the 1951 Festival of Britain, he was created CBE in 1952. He had steadily added to his academic distinctions: MA (TCD), 1945; B.Litt. (TCD), 1946; M.Sc. (QUB), 1946; and Ph.D. (QUB), 1950. Deputy managing director from 1953, then succeeding his father as chief executive and chairman in 1962, he finally obtained state funding to upgrade Queen's Island with a new building dock and the long-awaited Belfast dry dock (1963) for prestigious foreign orders, especially from Scandinavia, constructing standard and prefabricated vessels including oil tankers. Even this was no assurance of stability: in 1965–6, after the brief triumph of a major Norwegian bulk-carrier contract, the firm slid from boom to near failure within months. Rebbeck was forced to resign his chairmanship when the government of Terence O'Neill (qv) undertook an emergency loan to save the yards.
He remained chief executive until 1970, when he resigned from H&W and became a consultant engineer to the Swan Hunter Group Ltd, shipbuilders at Newcastle upon Tyne. In the course of his career he gathered many directorships, consultancies, and positions of authority. During and after his years at H&W and at Swan Hunter, he held directorships of the British Ship Research Association Ltd, the Shipbuilding Corporation Ltd, and the Bank of Scotland. He was consultant to the board of the Engineering Employers’ Federation and to the court of assistants, Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, where he became prime warden in 1980. His chairmanships included the Iron Trades Employers’ Insurance Association Ltd, the Iron Trades Mutual Insurance Company Ltd, and Belfast coal distributor John Kelly Ltd. Conferred DL and appointed deputy county lieutenant of Belfast in 1960, he also served, like his father, as a Belfast harbour commissioner (1962–85). He sat simultaneously on the general and technical committees of Lloyd's Register and frequently addressed professional bodies, including the British Association and the Institution of Engineers. Rebbeck was a London-based member of the Royal Automobile Club and sailed with the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club. He lived at The White House, Craigavad, Co. Down, where he died suddenly 10 May 1994, aged 80. He was cremated at Roselawn in Belfast.
He married (1938) Rosamond, daughter of Henry Jameson of Bangor, Co. Down, they had four sons, Gordon, Brian, Peter, and Edward.