Frank Searle ( businessman ) 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 . Personal . Searle was born in late 1874 at Greenwich , ( 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 ' . Career . He was apprenticed to the Great Western Railway at Swindon Works and became a locomotive engineer but Searle soon recognized that the new petrol engines 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 London . 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 . Omnibuses . 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 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 . 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 tube s 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 . BSA group — Daimler . Omnibuses and commercial vehicles . In May 1911 Daimler 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 - electric 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 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 . 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 . Daimler Hire and Daimler Airway . 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 . Imperial Airways . 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 . 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 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 . 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 Company . During the war the company made motor torpedo boats , gunboats and rescue vessels .