Early life

Dagnall was born in Fulham, London in 1888 the son of Walter and Frances Dagnall, he was educated at Tiffin School, Kingston upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...

. Dagnall started his career in the drawing office of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company

Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company

The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth Wharf on the west side and at Canning Town on the east side...

. He then joined Ernest Willows

Ernest Willows

Ernest Thompson Willows was a pioneer Welsh aviator and airship builder the first person in the United Kingdom to hold a pilots certificate for an airship when the Royal Aero Club awarded him Airship Pilots Certificate No. 1....

 in developing Willows airships

Willows airships

|-See also:...

 and during the 1914-18 war he was first works manager and then general manager of Airships, Ltd., a firm which made kite balloons and blimp

Blimp

A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is a floating airship without an internal supporting framework or keel. A non-rigid airship differs from a semi-rigid airship and a rigid airship in that it does not have any rigid structure, neither a complete framework nor a partial keel, to help the airbag...

s.

Following the war Dagnall founded his own company, which has since become famous for pneumatic dinghies and barrage balloons. The RFD name is now synonymous with "Rapid Floatation Device" and the supply of marine and aviation safety equipment. He had researched flotation gear of various sorts, and in 1918 he built some of the earliest rubber dinghies. RFD moved to Guildford in 1926 and expanded to Catteshall Lane, Godalming, in 1936 the Godalming factory burnt down and was rebuilt in 1954. In 1959 RFD merged with Perseverance Mill. In 1963 it took over Elliot Equipment and acquired GQ Parachute Company Ltd. It purchased Mills Equipment Company in 1968. In 1970 the three companies merged to form RFD-GQ In 1975 RFD-GQ divided into: - RFD Inflatables Ltd - GQ Parachutes Ltd - RFD Systems Engineering Ltd - RFD Mills Equipment Ltd.

Dagnall was also a director of G.Q. Parachute Co., Ltd., (now part of IRVIN-GQ

IRVIN-GQ

IRVIN-GQ is a company based in Llangeinor, Wales, United Kingdom that designs, manufactures and supplies a range of parachutes and emergency, rescue and survival equipment to the military, coastguard and civilian aerospace markets...

) which leased space in the RFD works in Guildford. The GQ company operated for many years as a separate organisation until it was absorbed into the RFD Group. In 1942 Dagnall died, in his late fifties of heart failure.

Sailplanes and gliding

After World War I, in a small factory at 17 Stoke Road, Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

, Surrey Dagnall began the manufacture of equipment and gliders. In 1930 he improved on the German Zogling primary glider and marketed it under the name of Dagling. The Dagling was continued in production by the Slingsby glider company as the Slingsby Primary

Slingsby Primary

-See also:-References:* Ellison, N.H. British Gliders and Sailplanes 1922-1970. A & C Black, 1971* Simons, M. Slingsby Sailplanes. Airlife Publishing, 1996 - ISBN 1-85310-732-8...

. Dagnall was a keen glider pilot and chairman of the Surrey Gliding Club and its later incarnation the Southern Counties Soaring Club

Airships

G-FAAX Non-Rigid Airship AD1 was designed by RFD and built by Airship Development Co at the Stoke Road works in Guildford. It was taken to Cramlington Aerodrome, near Newcastle and erected in the old 1918 airship hangar, with its first flight on 18 September 1929. In May 1930 it performed a number of aerial advertising flights with banners laced to the envelope sides. The original ABC Hornet engine was replaced by a 75 hp Rolls-Royce Hawk in July 1930 for work in Belgium. By mid-1931 it was dismantled and parts sold off by auction on 18 June 1931.