Frank Searle (1874-1948)
| Frank Searle | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1874 Greenwich, Kent |
| Died | 4 April 1948, aged 73 Bournemouth, Hampshire |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Engineer and Businessman |
| Known for | M.D. Imperial Airways Limited designed the X-type bus designed the B-type bus |
| Spouse(s) | Charlotte Louise (d. 1944) Alice |
| Children | Two daughters and two sons |
| Parent(s) | Henry and Elizabeth Searle |
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.
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'.
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.
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