Oliver Simmonds

Sir Oliver Edwin Simmonds, FRAeS (22 November 1897 – 26 July 1985) was a British aviation pioneer, aircraft engineer and Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Duddeston from 1931 to 1945.^[1]

Early life

Simmonds was born on 22 November 1897 in

In 1931 Simmonds entered politics as a Conservative. He was elected at the 1931 general election as the MP for Birmingham Duddeston.^[2] He held the seat until the 1945 general election.^[2] In the House Simmonds spoke on aviation, workers' conditions and Civil Defense. With other MP's he visited Spain during the Civil War there, to study the effects of aerial warfare on the civil population. On his return to Britain he formed the Air Raid Precautions Institute. This institute issued recommendations for the protection of the civilian population in the event of war.^{[citation needed]}

Simmonds Aerocessories

In 1931, following the sale of Simmonds Aircraft, Simmonds attended the annual Air Show at

Returning to Britain he set about forming Simmonds Aerocessories Ltd, entering into a manufacturing arrangement with Accles and Shelvoke in Birmingham and establishing a sales and administrative office in London. He soon had many customers.

In about 1933, Simmonds travelled to the US and followed up with some of the US contacts he had made back in the Schneider Trophy days. One of these contacts showed him a new nut, which was unique in that it had a red fibre insert, which caused the nut to retain its position on a bolt, irrespective of vibration. Simmonds realized this nut had the potential to do away with cotter pins. The holder of the worldwide patents was a Swede named Renefelt. Simmonds obtained an exclusive license for the rest of the world, with the exception of the US and Sweden. The two licenses for the Push Pull Control and the Elastic Stop Nut became the basis of the company's early rapid growth. In the second half of the 1930s Simmonds established his own manufacturing facilities in the UK, France, Poland, the US and Australia. Offices were also established in Canada.

Following the outbreak of WW II, manufacturing facilities were rapidly expanded to meet growing demand. Large manufacturing facilities were then acquired at Treforest, near Cardiff in Glamorganshire. The company also later took over the space owned by the Coty Cosmetics Company, also on the Great West Rd and further space in Sunderland.

In the late 1930s Simmonds had become the exclusive British and European licensee for the aircraft fuel gauging systems produced by the Liquidometer Corporation of New York, USA. As part of the company's entry into this market segment, Simmonds had hired a refugee Polish engineer. Between the two of them they conceived how to measure fuel electrically thereby providing much greater accuracy, irrespective of an aircraft's flight attitude. They went on to patent and produce such a system, called Pacitor. The first British aircraft to use this system was the country's first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, which first saw combat in 1944, chasing and shooting down many German V-1 missiles.

These Pacitor fuel gauging systems were licensed to the US Simmonds company and became the basis of that company evolving after WW II from producing mainly mechanical products to moving first to electro-mechanical products and finally in the 1960s to mostly electronic products.

After the end of WW II new orders for all military aircraft came to an abrupt halt. Simmonds consolidated all its reduced operations at its Treforest factory, near Cardiff. In 1947

In 1947 the Electric and General Industrial Trusts, Ltd., of which Mr. C. W. Hayward was chairman, bought the entire share capital of Simmonds Aerocessories, Ltd., and Simmonds Products, Ltd. Sir Oliver retained his interests in Simmonds Development Corp., Ltd, which held many of the Simmonds patents.^[3] Sir Oliver retained his interests in the US, Canadian and French businesses. This last was also sold in the late 1940s to a French Company.^[4]

Simmonds Aerocessories was the original manufacturer of surform tools.

On selling his Simmonds / Spartan companies Oliver Simmonds established Simmonds Aerocessories.

Bahamas

In 1948, Simmonds sold his British-based interests and moved to

Simmonds helped to stabilize the hotel industry by becoming the President of The Hotel Employer Association and then the President of The Friends of The Bahamas.[9] Sir Oliver built 'High Tor' with its 18-foot gracious high ceiling rooms it was designed with care and with an eye to detail still apparent to this day. Sir Oliver imported English oak panels for doors and an 18th-century carved wooden fireplace as well as many other decorative items. He was an inventor and engineer, there are still features existing today that were considered innovative when he designed them such as the floating spiral staircase and the enormous windows that slide down to disappear completely into the floor. He lived in High Tor until 1963 and he continued to live in Lyford Cay until 1977.

4CYTE (foresight)

Sir Oliver invented a game club called 4CYTE (pronounced "foresight").^[10] Each player has an identical set of letters and a six-by-six grid. Players alternate calling letters and placing them on their respective grids. Each player may hold one letter as a stand by. When the grids are filled, the players score the six rows, six column, and two diagonals. When a player has spelled a word that is at least three letters long that player receives points for that scoring line. Longer words are worth more points. The player with the most points wins. In the solitaire version, a player selects thirty six letters and moves them around at will to score a personal best.^[11]

The President of the club was Sir Oliver Simmonds, and he was the first 4CYTE champion. The International 4 CYTE Champions' Club is an unincorporated association owned by the International Parlour Games Corporation Limited, Nassau, Bahamas.

References

Notes

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Oliver Simmonds