The company's founder and namesake, Frank Perkins, was born in Peterborough on 20 February 1889. His father and grandfather were engineers and the family firm, Barford and Perkins, manufactured agricultural machinery and road rollers. While working at Aveling and Porter in Rochester Kent, Frank Perkins started to develop a light high-speed diesel engine with an engine designer, Charles Chapman. Before the engine was fully developed the Depression had bankrupted the company.