Arthur Gouge

Sir Arthur Gouge FIAeS (3 July 1890 - 14 October 1962) was a British engineer and aircraft designer from Kent, who worked notably for Short Brothers.

He was born in Kent. His father George came from Sittingbourne. He had an older brother, a younger sister, and two younger brothers. He attended Gravesend Technical School (now Gravesend Grammar School) then Woolwich Polytechnic.

He joined Short brothers in Kent in 1915 as a mechanic. Charles Richard Fairey, of Fairey Aviation Company, had also worked around this time at Shorts. He became their Chief Designer in 1926, staying until 1943 when the company was taken over by the Government (Defence Regulation 78). He was one of two directors of the company in 1935, with Oswald Short, when the company went public. He was awarded the RAeS British Gold Medal for Aeronautics in 1937. He was the joint designer of the Short Stirling, the RAF's first four-engine heavy bomber, which first flew on 14 May 1939.

He invented the Gouge flap in 1936.

He became Chief Executive of Saunders-Roe Ltd in 1943. In September 1953 he gave a talk to the 1941 Committee, and again in July 1954. On 18 August 1959 he resigned from Saunders-Roe when it merged with Westland Aircraft.

He married Margaret Ellen Cook in 1918; they had one son and one daughter. His wife died in 1940. He was knighted in the 1948 Birthday Honours. His daughter married John Lodge on Saturday 29 September 1956. He died on Sunday 14 October 1962, aged 72.

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