Frank Searle (businessman)

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.

[1] 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.

Having seen that mechanized road transport would present better prospects for making money Searle entered business as a consultant motor engineer located in the West End of London.

He sold several Lacoste et Battman chassis to the London and District Motor Omnibus Company, which traded as "Arrow".

Searle was forced to abandon his consultancy when the final part of the order was cancelled due to the unreliability of the vehicles.

[10] In 1907, the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) employed Searle as Superintendent at its Mortlake garage at an annual salary of £350.

At the time, LGOC had a varied fleet of some 600 motor-buses all of which proved unable to cope with the stresses of operating in London's traffic.

[8] Rumours reached the LGOCs board that Searle had been offered a senior position with the Daimler Company's planned new motor-omnibus business.

[12] In May 1911 Daimler announced the flotation of shares in a new subsidiary to operate a London bus service, The Premier Motor Omnibus Company,[8] to run Daimler buses[13] with Searle "who has resigned his position with London General Omnibus for the purpose" as General Manager.

[10] In June 1912 LGOC's former bus manufacturing operation was hived off into AEC[10] and Searle is described as "manager of the Daimler Company Limited 'bus and commercial vehicle department" when visiting North America to "inspect the bus transportation system in the large American and Canadian cities and also to attend the trials of agricultural gasoline tractors at the Winnipeg Man.

In February 1920, BSA bought George Holt Thomas's Airco, parent of Aircraft Transport and Travel (AT&T), and Searle was also appointed AT&Ts managing director.

[8] Also in that year, Searle read a paper title "The Requirements and Difficulties of Air Transport" to the Royal Aeronautical Society.

This was the Rover Scarab with a rear-mounted V-twin-cylinder air-cooled engine eventually announced in 1931, a van version was shown at Olympia, but it did not go into production.

[23] When the Second World War broke out, Searle came out of retirement to become managing director, and deputy chairman, of the British Power Boat Company.