Thomas Robb Coughtrie was credited by the Times as the inventor of the Mole wrench.
However, this conflicts with other references that show the invention of the Vice Grip  in Nebraska with an initial patent in 1921 and fuller developments patented in 1924.
It could be surmised that M. K. Mole and Son produced their own version (the Mole Grip) based on the existing American Vice Grip. The likeness between the two is clear even from sketch drawings.

He was born in Motherwell

Motherwell

Motherwell is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, south east of Glasgow. The name "Moderwelt" appears on a map of Lanarkshire made by Timothy Pont some time between 1583 and 1611 and printed in the Netherlands in around 1652, although the settlement was probably little more...

, Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. After his education at Bellshill

Bellshill

Bellshill is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, 10 miles south east of Glasgow city centre and 37 miles west of Edinburgh. Other nearby towns are Motherwell , Hamilton and Coatbridge . Since 1996, it has been situated in the Greater Glasgow metropolitan area...

 Academy he qualified as a chartered engineer

Chartered Engineer (UK)

In the United Kingdom, a Chartered Engineer is an engineer registered with Engineering Council UK . Contemporary Chartered Engineers are master's degree-qualified and have gained professional competencies through training and experience...

.

During the Second World War, he was an electrical engineer involved in the maintenance of 1000 ton 'Whale' floating roadways for Mulberry harbour

Mulberry harbour

A Mulberry harbour was a British type of temporary harbour developed in World War II to offload cargo on the beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy....

s.

In 1947 he started working for the Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 engineering firm 'M. K. Mole and Son', founded in 1835. When the second Mole brother died in 1950 he became managing director of the company. In 1955 he patented the self-grip wrench.

In 1960 the Mole company, and Coughtrie, relocated to Newport, Monmouthshire.

He became a director of Cwmbran New Town

Cwmbran

Cwmbrân is a new town in Wales. Today forming part of the county borough of Torfaen and lying within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, Cwmbrân was established in 1949 to provide new employment opportunities in the south eastern portion of the South Wales Coalfield. Cwmbrân means Crow...

, governor of four local technical colleges and, in 1978, deputy lieutenant for Gwent

Gwent (county)

Gwent is a preserved county and a former local government county in south-east Wales. It was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was named after the ancient Kingdom of Gwent....

.