Frank Searle (businessman)
Encyclopedia
Frank Searle CBE
, DSO
, MIME
(1874 – 4 April 1948) was a British transport entrepreneur, a locomotive engineer who moved from steam to omnibuses, the motor industry and airlines.
, (then in Kent
), the son of draper Henry Searle and his wife Elizabeth (née Croaker). Searle appears in the 1881 census of Greenwich living with his parents and siblings at 282 New Cross Road in Deptford
, he is described as a six-year old scholar. In the 1891 census Searle is still at 282 New Cross Road with his siblings and he is described as a 16-year old steam engine fitters apprentice.
In 1897 he married Charlotte Louise Soyer. Searle doesn't appear to be with his wife and family at the time of the 1901 census; his wife Charlotte is living at 112 Perry Hill in Lewisham
with three children, Joan aged 2, Mary aged 1 and Geoffrey aged 2 months. In the 1911 census of Barnet
, Hertfordshire
, Searle and his wife, two daughters and a son Richard Soyer Searle are living in North Finchley, Searle is described as a mechanical engineer with the London and General Omnibus Company
.
He remarried after Charlotte's death in 1944. Searle died aged 73 at his home in Bournemouth
, Hampshire
on 4 April 1948. His estate was valued for duty at £44,732 3s 3d
.
Sometimes unkindly referred to as Uncle Frank and "a bus-company manager" Frank Searle died just too young to see the true advent of the era of mass air-travel—not yet on-stage but, as he rightly suspected, 'waiting in the wings'.
at Swindon Works
and became a locomotive engineer but Searle soon recognized that the new petrol engine
s offering a higher power-to-weight ratio would be better than steam power.
. In 1905 he was in Paris
, France
where he represented the Turgan and Lacoste et Battman companies. He sold several Lacoste et Battman chassis to the London and District Motor Omnibus Company, which traded as "Arrow". The Lacoste et Battman buses were unreliable, and suffered frequent breakdowns. Searle was forced to abandon his consultancy when the final part of the order was cancelled due to the unreliability of the vehicles. Arrow took Searle on as a mechanic to keep the fleet of buses on the road. Searle patented and sold to LGOC for £1,000 an ingenious silent roller-chain constant-mesh gearbox.
In 1907, the General, more fully London General Omnibus Company
(LGOC) employed Searle as Superindendent at its Mortlake
garage at an annual salary of £350. He was soon transferred to Cricklewood
and on 18 May 1907 was appointed as Chief Motor Engineer at a salary of £450, later rising to £500. At the time, LGOC had a varied fleet of some 600 motor-buses all of which proved unable to cope with the stresses of operating in London's traffic. Searle persuaded LGOC to allow him to design a vehicle that was fit for the job. The best features of existing vehicles were taken and incorporated into the new design named the X-type bus. The prototype was completed on 12 August 1909 and, due to licensing delays, entered service in December. The next year Searle produced an improved design, the B-type bus, which entered service on 18 October 1910.
Rumours reached the LGOCs board that Searle had been offered a senior position with the Daimler Motor Company
's planned new motor-omnibus business. Searle's salary was increased from £1,000 to £1,250 on condition that he devote all his time to LGOC and took no outside employment. He prevaricated. Searle was ordered to appear before the board at their meeting on 4 May 1911. Offered a salary of £2,000 provided he signed a new contract there and then, Searle refused and was dismissed with three months' salary in lieu of notice. The details of his new position with Daimler's The Premier Motor Omnibus Company were announced in The Times on 6 May 1911. This company, ultimately established without Searle or any tie to Daimler and later known as The London Premier Bus Company was wound up in 1917 having had a probable maximum fleet of six De Dion Boutons.
announced the flotation of shares in a new subsidiary to operate a London bus service, The Premier Motor Omnibus Company, to run Daimler buses with Searle "who has resigned his position with London General Omnibus for the purpose" as General Manager. Days later these plans were scrapped. It had been intended that this new London bus company would use Daimler's new KPL petrol-elecric hybrid. Tilling-Stevens, a close associate of LGOC claimed a patent infringement and production was stopped. Twelve KPLs had been made.
Searle's new responsibility was to design the replacement product, effectively a B-Type with a Daimler motor. Then he had to sell this new vehicle and seems to have done well at this job. In June 1912 LGOC's former bus manufacturing operation was hived off into AEC and Searle is described as "manager of the Daimler Motor Company Limited 'bus and commercial vehicle department" when visiting North America to "inspect the bus transportation system in the large American and Canadian cities and also to attend the trials of agricultural gasoline tractors at the Winnipeg Man. exhibition."
Searle served in the First World War with the Machine Gun Corps (Heavy)
which used Daimler-powered artillery tractors and in 1917 became the Tank Corps
with Daimler-powered tanks.
He was temporarily promoted to Major in November 1916. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
. He was mentioned in despatches.
In 1918 Colonel Searle was awarded a Distinguished Service Order
and he was made a CBE
the following year.
Post-war, Searle returned to Daimler where he was made managing director of Daimler Hire Limited
. In June 1919 he formed a new subsidiary Daimler Air Hire Limited. In February 1920, BSA
bought George Holt Thomas
's Airco
, parent of Aircraft Transport and Travel
(AT&T), and Searle was also appointed AT&Ts managing director. AT&T ran its last service on 17 December 1920. In January 1921 debt-swamped AT&T was liquidated and its assets, bought by Daimler Hire, were put with Daimler Air Hire to make Daimler Airway
. Searle also became the managing director of Daimler Airway. Also in that year, Searle read a paper title "The Requirements and Difficulties of Air Transport" to the Royal Aeronautical Society
.
In 1924, Daimler Airway was merged with three other airlines, Handley Page Transport, Instone Airline and British Marine Air Navigation, to form Imperial Airways
.
Searle was appointed managing director and appointed one of the eight members of the new board.
Searle had been appointed managing director of Rover in May 1928 and soon achieved some success in restoring Rover's fortunes. On his recommendation Spencer Wilks was brought in from Hillman
as general manager and appointed to the board in 1929. Spencer and Maurice Wilks were to stay with Rover into the 1960s. January 1930 saw the Blue Train Races
, Rover against Bentley then regular winners at the Le Mans 24 hours endurance race.
Next Searle split Midland Light Car Bodies from Rover in an effort to save money and instructed Robert Boyle and Maurice Wilks
to design a new small car. This was the Rover Scarab
with a rear-mounted V-twin-cylinder air-cooled engine eventually announced in 1931, a van version was shown at Olympia, but it did not go into production.
During his time at Rover, the Rover 10/25 was introduced, with bodies made by the Pressed Steel Company
. This was the same body as used on the Hillman Minx. The company showed profits in the 1929 and 1930 years but with the economic downturn in 1931 Rover reported a loss of £77,529.
Searle left the board near the end of the calendar year, his work finished. leaving management in the control of Maurice Wilks with a new finance director, H E Graham.
. During the war the company made motor torpedo boats, gunboats and rescue vessels.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, MIME
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is the British engineering society based in central London, representing mechanical engineering. It is licensed by the Engineering Council UK to assess candidates for inclusion on ECUK's Register of professional Engineers...
(1874 – 4 April 1948) was a British transport entrepreneur, a locomotive engineer who moved from steam to omnibuses, the motor industry and airlines.
Personal
Searle was born in late 1874 at GreenwichGreenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
, (then in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
), the son of draper Henry Searle and his wife Elizabeth (née Croaker). Searle appears in the 1881 census of Greenwich living with his parents and siblings at 282 New Cross Road in Deptford
Deptford
Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...
, he is described as a six-year old scholar. In the 1891 census Searle is still at 282 New Cross Road with his siblings and he is described as a 16-year old steam engine fitters apprentice.
In 1897 he married Charlotte Louise Soyer. Searle doesn't appear to be with his wife and family at the time of the 1901 census; his wife Charlotte is living at 112 Perry Hill in Lewisham
Lewisham
Lewisham is a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
with three children, Joan aged 2, Mary aged 1 and Geoffrey aged 2 months. In the 1911 census of Barnet
Barnet
High Barnet or Chipping Barnet is a place in the London Borough of Barnet, North London, England. It is a suburban development built around a twelfth-century settlement and is located north north-west of Charing Cross. Its name is often abbreviated to Barnet, which is also the name of the London...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, Searle and his wife, two daughters and a son Richard Soyer Searle are living in North Finchley, Searle is described as a mechanical engineer with the London and General Omnibus Company
London General Omnibus Company
The London General Omnibus Company or LGOC, was the principal bus operator in London between 1855 and 1933. It was also, for a short period between 1909 and 1912, a motor bus manufacturer.- Overview :...
.
He remarried after Charlotte's death in 1944. Searle died aged 73 at his home in Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
on 4 April 1948. His estate was valued for duty at £44,732 3s 3d
£sd
£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...
.
Sometimes unkindly referred to as Uncle Frank and "a bus-company manager" Frank Searle died just too young to see the true advent of the era of mass air-travel—not yet on-stage but, as he rightly suspected, 'waiting in the wings'.
Career
He was apprenticed to the Great Western RailwayGreat Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
at Swindon Works
Swindon Works
Swindon railway works were built by the Great Western Railway in 1841 in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire.-History:In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol. Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.From 1836, Brunel had been buying...
and became a locomotive engineer but Searle soon recognized that the new petrol engine
Petrol engine
A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels....
s offering a higher power-to-weight ratio would be better than steam power.
Consultant motor engineer
Having seen that mechanized road transport would present better prospects for making money Searle entered business as a consultant motor engineer located in the West End of LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. In 1905 he was in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
where he represented the Turgan and Lacoste et Battman companies. He sold several Lacoste et Battman chassis to the London and District Motor Omnibus Company, which traded as "Arrow". The Lacoste et Battman buses were unreliable, and suffered frequent breakdowns. Searle was forced to abandon his consultancy when the final part of the order was cancelled due to the unreliability of the vehicles. Arrow took Searle on as a mechanic to keep the fleet of buses on the road. Searle patented and sold to LGOC for £1,000 an ingenious silent roller-chain constant-mesh gearbox.
Omnibuses
London General Omnibus Company
The London General Omnibus Company or LGOC, was the principal bus operator in London between 1855 and 1933. It was also, for a short period between 1909 and 1912, a motor bus manufacturer.- Overview :...
(LGOC) employed Searle as Superindendent at its Mortlake
Mortlake
Mortlake is a district of London, England and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes with East Sheen inland to the south. Mortlake was part of Surrey until 1965.-History:...
garage at an annual salary of £350. He was soon transferred to Cricklewood
Cricklewood
Cricklewood is a district of North London, England whose northeastern part is in the London Borough of Barnet, western part is the London Borough of Brent and southeastern part is in London Borough of Camden.-History:...
and on 18 May 1907 was appointed as Chief Motor Engineer at a salary of £450, later rising to £500. At the time, LGOC had a varied fleet of some 600 motor-buses all of which proved unable to cope with the stresses of operating in London's traffic. Searle persuaded LGOC to allow him to design a vehicle that was fit for the job. The best features of existing vehicles were taken and incorporated into the new design named the X-type bus. The prototype was completed on 12 August 1909 and, due to licensing delays, entered service in December. The next year Searle produced an improved design, the B-type bus, which entered service on 18 October 1910.
Rumours reached the LGOCs board that Searle had been offered a senior position with the Daimler Motor Company
Daimler Motor Company
The Daimler Motor Company Limited was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H J Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The right to the use of the name Daimler had been purchased simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler Motoren...
's planned new motor-omnibus business. Searle's salary was increased from £1,000 to £1,250 on condition that he devote all his time to LGOC and took no outside employment. He prevaricated. Searle was ordered to appear before the board at their meeting on 4 May 1911. Offered a salary of £2,000 provided he signed a new contract there and then, Searle refused and was dismissed with three months' salary in lieu of notice. The details of his new position with Daimler's The Premier Motor Omnibus Company were announced in The Times on 6 May 1911. This company, ultimately established without Searle or any tie to Daimler and later known as The London Premier Bus Company was wound up in 1917 having had a probable maximum fleet of six De Dion Boutons.
Inner tubes
In 1910 Searle had entered into business with a Mr F H Hall to form Hall & Searle Ltd and to develop and manufacture tyre inner tubes of a unique folded and strengthened design. In 1913, Hall and Searle was floated on the stock exchange as The Searle Unburstable Inner Tube Company.Omnibuses and commercial vehicles
In May 1911 DaimlerDaimler Motor Company
The Daimler Motor Company Limited was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H J Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The right to the use of the name Daimler had been purchased simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler Motoren...
announced the flotation of shares in a new subsidiary to operate a London bus service, The Premier Motor Omnibus Company, to run Daimler buses with Searle "who has resigned his position with London General Omnibus for the purpose" as General Manager. Days later these plans were scrapped. It had been intended that this new London bus company would use Daimler's new KPL petrol-elecric hybrid. Tilling-Stevens, a close associate of LGOC claimed a patent infringement and production was stopped. Twelve KPLs had been made.
Searle's new responsibility was to design the replacement product, effectively a B-Type with a Daimler motor. Then he had to sell this new vehicle and seems to have done well at this job. In June 1912 LGOC's former bus manufacturing operation was hived off into AEC and Searle is described as "manager of the Daimler Motor Company Limited 'bus and commercial vehicle department" when visiting North America to "inspect the bus transportation system in the large American and Canadian cities and also to attend the trials of agricultural gasoline tractors at the Winnipeg Man. exhibition."
World War I
Machine Gun Corps
The Machine Gun Corps was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in World War I. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks in combat, and the branch was subsequently turned into the Tank...
which used Daimler-powered artillery tractors and in 1917 became the Tank Corps
Royal Tank Regiment
The Royal Tank Regiment is an armoured regiment of the British Army. It was formerly known as the Tank Corps and the Royal Tank Corps. It is part of the Royal Armoured Corps and is made up of two operational regiments, the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment...
with Daimler-powered tanks.
He was temporarily promoted to Major in November 1916. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
. He was mentioned in despatches.
In 1918 Colonel Searle was awarded a Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
and he was made a CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
the following year.
Daimler Hire and Daimler Airway
Daimler Hire
Daimler Hire Limited a service begun in 1897, provided a luxury chauffeur-driven Daimler Limousine-hire-service from Knightsbridge in London. It was a wholly owned operation and later a subsidiary of The Daimler Motor Company Limited....
. In June 1919 he formed a new subsidiary Daimler Air Hire Limited. In February 1920, BSA
Birmingham Small Arms Company
This article is not about Gamo subsidiary BSA Guns Limited of Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham B11 2PP or BSA Company or its successors....
bought George Holt Thomas
George Holt Thomas
George Holt Thomas aviation industry pioneer and newspaper proprietor. Holt Thomas founded, in 1911, the business which became Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited or Airco....
's Airco
Airco
The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited was established in 1912 by George Holt Thomas at The Hyde in Hendon, north London, England.-Geoffrey de Havilland:...
, parent of Aircraft Transport and Travel
Aircraft Transport and Travel
Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited was a British airline formed during the First World War, a subsidiary of Airco. It was the first airline to operate a regular international flight .-History:...
(AT&T), and Searle was also appointed AT&Ts managing director. AT&T ran its last service on 17 December 1920. In January 1921 debt-swamped AT&T was liquidated and its assets, bought by Daimler Hire, were put with Daimler Air Hire to make Daimler Airway
Daimler Airway
Daimler Airway was an airline subsidiary of BSA group's Daimler Motor Company created to use some of the assets of the failed ventures Airco and its subsidiary Aircraft Transport and Travel acquired by BSA in February 1920.-History:...
. Searle also became the managing director of Daimler Airway. Also in that year, Searle read a paper title "The Requirements and Difficulties of Air Transport" to the Royal Aeronautical Society
Royal Aeronautical Society
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a multidisciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community.-Function:...
.
Imperial Airways
Imperial Airways
Imperial Airways was the early British commercial long range air transport company, operating from 1924 to 1939 and serving parts of Europe but especially the Empire routes to South Africa, India and the Far East...
.
Searle was appointed managing director and appointed one of the eight members of the new board.
Rover
In December 1928 the chairman of Rover advised shareholders that the accumulation of the substantial losses of the 1923–1928 years together with the costs of that year's reorganisation must be recognised by a reduction of 60% in the value of capital of the company.Searle had been appointed managing director of Rover in May 1928 and soon achieved some success in restoring Rover's fortunes. On his recommendation Spencer Wilks was brought in from Hillman
Hillman
Hillman is a British automobile marque created by the Hillman Motor Car Company, founded in 1907. The company was based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, England. Before 1907 the company had built bicycles...
as general manager and appointed to the board in 1929. Spencer and Maurice Wilks were to stay with Rover into the 1960s. January 1930 saw the Blue Train Races
Blue Train Races
The Blue Train Races were a series of record-breaking attempts between automobiles and trains in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It saw a number of motorists and their own or sponsored automobiles race against the Le Train Bleu, a train that ran between Calais and the French Riviera...
, Rover against Bentley then regular winners at the Le Mans 24 hours endurance race.
Next Searle split Midland Light Car Bodies from Rover in an effort to save money and instructed Robert Boyle and Maurice Wilks
Maurice Wilks
Maurice Cary Ferdinand Wilks was an automotive and aeronautical engineer, and by the time of his death in 1963, was the chairman of the Rover Company, a British car manufacturer...
to design a new small car. This was the Rover Scarab
Rover Scarab
The Rover Scarab was a convertible four seater intended to sell at £85, and had a V twin engine of only 839 cc, which was rear mounted. Despite the engine position, the Scarab had a conventional radiator grill at the front. The other 1930s rear engined cars all had a down-curved grill-less front...
with a rear-mounted V-twin-cylinder air-cooled engine eventually announced in 1931, a van version was shown at Olympia, but it did not go into production.
During his time at Rover, the Rover 10/25 was introduced, with bodies made by the Pressed Steel Company
Pressed Steel Company
The Pressed Steel Company Limited was a British car body manufacturing company founded at Cowley near Oxford in 1926 as a joint venture between William Morris, the Budd Corporation and an American bank. Today at what was the company's Cowley plant, the BMW new MINI is assembled, this site is...
. This was the same body as used on the Hillman Minx. The company showed profits in the 1929 and 1930 years but with the economic downturn in 1931 Rover reported a loss of £77,529.
Searle left the board near the end of the calendar year, his work finished. leaving management in the control of Maurice Wilks with a new finance director, H E Graham.
Power boats
When the Second World War broke out, Searle came out of retirement to become managing director, and deputy chairman, of the British Power Boat CompanyBritish Power Boat Company
The British Power Boat Company was a British manufacturer of motor boats, particularly racing boats and later military patrol boats.It was formed on 30 September 1927 when Hubert Scott-Paine bought and renamed the Hythe Shipyard with the intention of transforming it into one of the most modern mass...
. During the war the company made motor torpedo boats, gunboats and rescue vessels.