Originally Brush was called the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation Limited, established in Lambeth to exploit the inventions of Charles Francis Brush (1849-1929), born in Cleveland, Ohio.

Brush developed his first dynamo in 1876 and founded the American Brush Company in 1881. The American company was taken over in 1891 by the General Electric Company. 1889 the company took over assets of the Falcon Engine & Car Works Ltd., in Loughborough, England and from then on was known as the Brush Electrical Engineering Company with its base of operations moved to the Midlands.

In 1947 the company joined with W.G.Bagnall to produce diesel locomotives, thereby keeping a long tradition of working on railway related projects. When British Railways began to replace its fleet of steam engines, Brush entered the market for main line diesel-electric locomotives. In 1991 the company name changed to Brush Traction; part of FKI Energy Technologies. The locomotive works was subsequently purchased by the Brush Traction Company and is still in used for the repair of locomotives.