Frank Perkins (engineer)

Francis Arthur "Frank" Perkins (20 February 1889 – 15 October 1967) was a British engineer, businessman, creator of the Perkins Diesel Engine, and founder of Perkins Engines Company Limited.

Perkins was born in Peterborough, the son of John Edward Sharman Perkins, an agricultural engineer, and his wife Margaret Charlotte Long. His brother Christopher Perkins became a noted artist, and both boys were educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk. Frank attended Rugby School (1902–1904), Gresham's (1904–1907), and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, (1907–1910) gaining a pass degree in mechanical engineering in 1910.

At the beginning of the First World War, Perkins quickly volunteered, and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers, serving in its 34th divisional company in the Dardanelles, Palestine, and Egypt. He was demobilized in 1918 with the rank of major.

He was a third generation engineer, following both his grandfather and father, who both worked for Barford and Perkins, a family firm that manufactured road construction rollers/compactors, agricultural rollers, and other agricultural machinery. However, before joining the family firm at its Queen Street ironworks in Peterborough, he worked for Lawes Chemicals Ltd.

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