Please select to navigate the site

Memorial Service

Concorde Prints

GRE’s Hobbies

MEMORIAL SERVICE ADDRESS

by Sir Richard Evans Chairman of BAE Systems plc.

GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL

MONDAY JUNE 23^RD AT NOON

When we first heard of the loss of George Edwards, at the beginning of March in his 95^th year, there was a very wide feeling of shock, sorrow and even disbelief among the multitude of friends and colleagues. All of us are mindful of the huge debt of gratitude for the many ways in which his long and fruitful life touched and enriched our own. He had always been there - “bashing on”, as he would say, and often expecting the rest of us to do the same!

These sentiments are strongly felt by George’s immediate family, his daughter Angela, better known to almost everybody as “Dingle”, and who George called “heroic” for all that she did for him.

Dingle was very special to him, particularly in his latter years, ensuring that he was so well cared for after the sad loss of his adored wife Dinah. Dingle’s support enabled him remain in his own home, to enjoy the company of his friends, grandchildren Claire and Richard, and great-grandchildren Benjamin and Paul.

Such was the richness of both his personal and professional life that the sadness we all felt was alleviated to a remarkable extent by the wave of affection and happy memories of him that quickly came back to each in their own way. Many of us can fondly recall those constant inspirational and memorable quips of wit and wisdom that always issued from him so freely.

All of us here to-day, with many more around the world, have a good cause to be thankful for the immensely fulfilled life which George shared so constructively and selflessly with so many and in such a uniquely distinctive way.

George Edwards was, of course, best and most widely known for his exceptional contribution to the world of aerospace. The results of which, provided many thousands of rewarding jobs - a whole new travel experience throughout the world by air - and key elements of our national defence and leading edge technologies - all of which he steered and managed with commanding ability, authority, effect and great success.

His outstanding aviation career spanned 40 years, from 1935 to 1975 – from bi-planes to supersonics. It covered the critical years of the late 1930’s and the wholesale re-equipment and expansion of the Royal Air Force to meet the demands of the Second World War. From this era, through to the pioneering launch of the jet age in the immediate post-war years, and the creation of large-scale international collaborative programmes during the 60’s and 70’s which is the way of industrial life today - George left his unique mark on all of them.

I could carry on forever talking about George’s achievements in the aviation industry for a lot longer than time allows. He was a modest man of enormous vision – wisdom - humour. Perhaps the most appropriate way to pay tribute to, and record our gratitude for his illustrious life story is by recalling just a few of the highlights and special moments that were so typically “George Edwards”. Undoubtedly a lot more will be remembered before the end of the day by many of you!

Born at Highams Park near Walthamstow in 1908, the son of a tobacconist and confectioner, he attended a council school and afterwards Walthamstow Engineering and Trade School, later known as Southwest Essex Technical College. Here he undertook his BSc degree course through part-time study. He often remarked that to complete this he had to get up at 5am for three hours study before starting work and then another few hours in the evening ‘doing his homework’ as he liked to call it.

Initially employed as an engineer in the London Docks, he joined Vickers Aviation in May 1935 as senior design draughtsman - but not before bargaining the offered salary of £5 per week, up to 5 guineas a week! “I wasn’t going to come to work in Weybridge for the same money I was already getting in London”, he said.

Here he worked under the paternal leadership of Rex Pierson and Barnes Wallis, on the long distance record breaking Wellesley bomber. After working for seven years in the heavy engineering business in the London Docks, George had to adapt very quickly to the more intricate engineering of aircraft structures -“ its like trying to defeat Isaac Newton” was how he put it.

His rapid progress in the design office led to key war work on the Wellington, having to report progress direct to Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty. He also worked on Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bombs, then followed a secondment to Beaverbrook’s Ministry of Aircraft Production, and was a key member of the Anglo-American team which examined and acquired valuable aeronautical research data and technology from Germany at the end of the war.

Even wartime Britain had its lighter moments in George’s vital work. Transporting the Vickers prototype aircraft the F7/41 - to Farnborough early one Sunday morning for its first flight, the width of the load was such that a narrow passage in Chobham became impassable because of a large holly tree. Charlie Houghton, George’s right hand man, without a second thought removed the offending obstacle with a rip saw and quickly replaced it, knowing full well that the holly leaves would take a long time to wither before they would be noticed!

After blocking the roadway system, breaking paving slabs and bringing down power lines, the flight finally took place. A severe nose wheel shimmy was reported on landing the aircraft – probably the result of the transportation mishaps – this was rectified in a matter of hours by moving the main undercarriage back three inches! With George remarking “that should solve the problem”.

After the maiden flight, which was on Christmas Eve 1942, George and his team celebrated at the nearby hostelry the Queen’s Hotel (now known as the Holiday Inn) with a rather excessive flow of gin and tonics. This resulted in all of them being somewhat worse for wear the next morning and George took the oath that he would never touch another G&T again. He also had a few other matters to deal with that morning, not only with his bosses at Weybridge, but also with Charlie Houghton’s wife. She couldn’t quite understand how George’s overcoat suddenly appeared in her cabbage patch overnight – he was very lucky that Charlie’s wife had not applied the fertiliser yet!

The post-war years saw a highly buoyant British aviation industry, which propelled George from Chief Designer in September 1945 at the age of 37 to Director, General Manager and Chief Engineer before becoming Managing Director in 1953. Over this period the aircraft developed under his technical direction and leadership included the Viking, Valetta, Varsity, Viscount, Valiant - the first UK in-service “V” jet bomber - the Vanguard, VC10, and the super VC10 - a family of aircraft and technological progression, under one individual, which remains special in the aviation world.

During this time George learned to fly himself at nearby Fairoaks aerodrome. When Peter Marsh, the Vickers airline training captain, was ‘reluctantly volunteered’ to take him through to his Private Pilots Licence at Wisley, he nervously asked George, then Managing Director, how they should play it. The response was typical and immediate: “Peter outside the aircraft I’m in charge; inside the aircraft your in charge. Come on, let’s have a go and get on with it.”

On another occasion, whilst flying one of the company’s communications aircraft through intermittent showers with Chief Test Pilot Jock Bryce, George was struggling to park the windscreen wipers against the bottom edge of the window frame. Jock mentioned he was having similar trouble with the Viscount. Jock, being interested in motor cars, mentioned that the wipers on the latest Jaguar cars now incorporated automatic parking. A heavy squall during the final approach meant that George became so distracted by the wretched wipers that his landing was “ very positive” as he put it. George sat in silence for a while, then said: “ Jock I think you had better go and talk to Jaguar tomorrow about those wipers”. And that’s how they became standard on the Viscount.

Recalling this incident later on, George said: “ To do this today, I suppose it would get some fancy names like “technology spin-off or transfer of intellectual property rights”, involving the Patents Office and teams of expensive lawyers for months on end. That was how we worked together in industry in those days – it always worked - was very enjoyable – got the job done and it was how we made friends. This was another example of his pragmatic approach in dealing with a problem, and getting people to work together positively.

A major breakthrough for post-war British aviation was the acceptance of the Viscount into the North American market, another great personal triumph for George Edwards. Gordon McGregor, President of Trans-Canada Airlines said at the time: “ I had met a great many Englishmen during the war, but George proved to be unique in my experience. He was slightly built, with aquiline features and a pair of eyes, which radiated the intelligence for which there was ample room in a massive, Kiplingesque cranium.

To Canadian Gordon McGregor, George’s speech was an astonishing conglomeration of cleverly imitated dialects, possibly best described as a mixture of New York Madison Avenue and cockney, heavily laden with the slang of both countries. His idiom, most of which I suspect was original, was a constant source of amusement to his listeners, although throughout he was talking sound and serious aerodynamics – how sound was to be proved over the next two decades and beyond. The sales of the Viscount to North American customers opened up a whole new world of transatlantic business which the Company still benefits from to this day.

Many years later in a “ Letter to America” programme Alistair Cooke also referred to George’s “distinctive mid-Atlantic accent”, whereupon George politely reminded him that actually it was “urban cockney”, of which he was very proud.

Gordon McGregor could have added some further distinctions that personified George - his ever present porkpie hat – the angle it was worn was a sure guide to the mood and significance of the moment. Also what he called his tweed “ratting suit” which he preferred working in, “This is much more comfortable than the dark pinstripe suits the others wear” he said.

After one business meeting at the Savoy hotel in London, after rather more than a couple of ‘tomato juices’, and in the early hours of the morning, George, using the hotel corridor, started demonstrating the art and science of spin bowling with his famous “flipper delivery” to the baseball addicted Canadians.

Whether they ever actually learned anything is not recorded but apparently the hotel management and housekeeping staff were not best pleased the next day! George since said: “ This was serious aerodynamic stuff. Today, I suppose, it would be called “ marketing”.        

Nationally recognised by the award of an MBE in 1945 and the CBE in 1952, George Edwards was deservedly created a Knight Bachelor (KBE) in 1957.

Further recognition of his enormous contribution to the aeronautical world came in 1971 when Her Majesty The Queen bestowed upon Sir George the Order of Merit, the highest honour in our Sovereign’s personal gift. The only other aeronautical engineers to be so honoured were Sir Geoffrey de Havilland and Sir Frank Whittle.

George’s last formal engagement was October last year when he and Dingle, together with the other distinguished OM’s, attended a service and lunch with the Queen in the Golden Jubilee year of Her Majesty’s reign to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Order of which he had the honour of being the longest appointed.

Beyond this, among the very long list of other honours and awards bestowed upon him during his lifetime, he was understandably most proud of his original BSc degree, that he had worked so hard for. After being elected a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society and seeing his name alongside such great scientists and engineers as Newton and Faraday, Sir George said that the honour made him feel very humble.

When Vickers-Armstrong Aviation became part of the newly formed British Aircraft Corporation in 1960, together with English Electric Aviation, Bristol Aircraft and later Hunting Aircraft, Sir George served successively as Executive Director Aircraft under the founding chairmanship of Lord Portal, succeeding him as Chairman and Managing Director in 1963. Relinquishing the post of Managing Director in1972, he continued as Chairman until his retirement at the end of 1975 at the age of 67 after 40 years of outstanding service. His  involvement and leadership in many of the most significant and successful British and international technological and industrial achievements are legendary.

During his dynamic period as Chairman, he led many British programmes, such as the TSR2, the BAC 111 and was a prime mover and central figure in the conception and leadership of international collaborative programmes, such as - the Anglo-French Concorde - the Jaguar - and the Anglo-German-Italian Panavia Tornado. Sir George even learned French during this period because he said he needed to better understand what the devil was going on in the joint board meetings in Toulouse!

During the inaugural flight of the Concorde, a lady passenger took courage and asked George how it was possible to reduce the temperature on the outside of the aircraft cabin during supersonic flight from that of boiling water to that of the comfort of your own living room, and all within the space of a few inches. George, being George and very polite, said “ Ah well madam, that was the really difficult bit”

George retired three weeks before Concorde entered serviced and sadly died three weeks before the announcement of its impending withdrawal.

George’s management style relied squarely on two fundamental beliefs, those were - family and trust. He was never an advocate of complex textbook organisational charts. “ You don’t put names in boxes, it is much better if you put boxes around names of people you know who can do the job, you give someone a job to do and trust them to do it” he said. How true of life that is today.

On one occasion one of George’s managers was waiting outside his office to see him when an ashen faced, trembling colleague emerged and disappeared without a word. After his meeting George asked the manager to go and see the colleague who had just left saying: “ I was pretty cross with old Peter and I think I may have upset him. Ask him to come over and have some “bread and cheese” with me - which was George’s term for lunch - I don’t want him to go home to his family to-night upset and unhappy” - that is a good demonstration of his man management skills and thoughtfulness to others. There are many lessons that can be learnt from his example.

One of George’s greatest and most enduring attributes and lessons to us all was the fact that, despite the enormous pressures under which he worked, he always insisted on leading a balanced life with proper time and regard for his family and his many personal interests and pursuits. In addition to his lifelong leadership in aviation, some of his many other interests included cricket - painting - the University, and St Martha’s.

His lifelong passion for cricket, especially the aerodynamic technique of spin bowling, had a significant influence early on in his professional career at Weybridge. It helped when he used his spin bowling theories in recommending that “back spin” be applied to Barnes Wallis’s “dambusting” bomb to achieve the water-top bouncing effect, which proved so decisive and successful, some 60 years ago

(Alec may be able to explain this better than I.)

George discovered his passion for painting during a long period of convalescence. This led to his becoming Patron of the Guild of Aviation Artists from its foundation in 1970. Having once said that he would like to get one of his “renderings accepted in a reasonable ambience of cultural understanding”, he quietly and modestly nursed a personal ambition to have one hung in the London Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. His modesty and patience was justifiably rewarded in the Millennium with his winning depiction of an energetic dog “Ben the Log Carrier” painted from life. Anyone who has visited his home, ‘Albury Heights’ at Guildford, and seen the great number of his paintings will know how good they are - and even -  if he were only known for this one talent, George would be regarded as something special.

George’s contribution to the University is well known and respected. He devoted much of his time and energy in sharing his vast knowledge and wisdom for the benefit of others to enjoy in their education. I am sure the influence that he had within the University, will live on for many years to come - and for future generations to appreciate.

A very important aspect of his life was St Martha’s Church, where he worshiped and where he rests, -  together once again, with his devoted wife Dinah.

George also enjoyed sailing his own yacht, golf and fishing, he often said that he had so much to do that he found it remarkably easy to fill his retirement years.

He bore his latter years with characteristic dignity and fortitude. He would often jokingly say that there was no future in old age but at least it was better than the alternative. When he once mentioned to his vicar that he was “indestructible” - the reply was “Not quite dear boy”!

George Edwards was a great engineer and a great man who served his country well. He was respected by all who knew him – those that worked with him, and in all he did – you could not ask much more of a man than that. It was a great privilege for me to have worked with him, and have him as a close personal friend. We often spoke together and even shared the same birthday – although I hope you will appreciate, not the same year! Often we would have a celebration lunch together and discuss putting the world to rights. His company, friendship and advice I enjoyed immensely and will sadly miss.

HRH Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh perhaps best summed up his four decade aeronautical career, at the time of his retirement in 1975, when he said: “ Sir George Edwards is one of those exceptional men who have stamped their genius on the course of events. His achievements have earned him a place among the great company of pioneers and innovators in world aviation”.

The large number of people gathered today to commemorate his life is a reassurance that the generation from which he came, lives on. He will be fondly remembered and revered for many years to come.

Finally we can surely do no better than to quote back George’s own accolade for those he rated highest, no matter what the connection or contribution:

“ He was a good’un”.

A remarkable man, who lived in remarkable times. God bless him, thank him and rest him well. He certainly deserves it.

[George Edwards] [Welcome] [Obituaries] [Painting Gallery] [Links] [About GRE] [Offers] [Memorial Service] [Events]