- Hives, Ernest Walter, 1st Baron Hives
Aero-engine designers
Life dates:
- 1886 - 1965
Biography:
- Ernest Walter Hives was born on 21 April 1886 in Earley, Reading, the son of John William Hives, a factory clerk, and his wife, Mary (née Washbourne). He was educated at Redlands School, Reading. After working in a Reading garage and the garage of C S Rolls's car sales company, London, he joined D Napier & Son Ltd, London, where he spent three years, probably as a mechanic and a driver. In 1908 he joined Rolls-Royce Ltd, initially at Derby, to supervise experimental work as a road test driver. With the outbreak of the First World War the company began to focus on aero-engine design and in 1915 Hives began to design the Eagle engine, Rolls-Royce’s first production engine used in service. Other notable engines followed, all of which were developed under Hives's direction, notably the Buzzard, leading to the ‘R’ series, which powered the Supermarine S.6 seaplanes that won the Schneider Trophy in 1929 and 1931, the Kestrel and later the Merlin, which powered Hurricanes and Spitfires. In 1934 Hives acquired two hangars on the Hucknall airfield where he set up the largely secret Rolls-Royce Hucknall Flight Test Establishment. In 1936 he became general works manager of the Rolls-Royce factories and, anticipating war, in 1937 took the important strategic decision to prepare the firm for a massive production increase in Merlin engines by splitting facilities between engineering and production. That year he was also elected to the board of Rolls-Royce. In 1942 Hives arranged with the Ministry of Aircraft Production for Rolls-Royce to take over the Rover gas turbine establishment which had been collaborating with Power Jets Ltd on the development of Frank Whittle's new jet engine. As a result, under Hives's direction, the company soon became a leader in the design, development and manufacture of jet and turbo-prop gas turbine aircraft engines. He became managing director of Rolls-Royce Ltd in 1946 and chairman in 1950, retiring in 1957. Hives was appointed MBE in 1920, a Companion of Honour in 1943 and a baron in 1950. He was awarded several honorary degrees and, in 1935, the gold medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Hives died on 24 April 1965 in Holborn, London. He married, Gertrude Ethel Warwick in 1913 and they had seven children.
Publications:
Kings Norton, revised by Robin Higham, ‘Hives, Ernest Walter, first Baron (1886-1965)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography (2004, revised 2010).
Records:
Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation
Correspondence, papers and photographs 1908-63 (7 volumes and loose items) [Library]. Catalogue at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/lists/GB-2333-Rolls.htm.
CID: