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George Rudolph Volkert CBE FRAeS (4 July 1891 – 16 May 1978) was a British aircraft designer. Working for Handley Page.he became its chief designer.

Early life

George was born in Fulham to Charles Fredrick Karl Volkert and Caecilie Volkert (daughter of Friedrich Chrysander, the 19th century musicologist). His mother died on 24 December 1922;

His sister Cecily married Flying Officer Bernard de Nevers on Tuesday 8 March 1927 at St Mark's Church in Peaslake in the Surrey Hills to . His father died on 7 December 1929 aged 76.

He studied at mechanical engineering at the Northampton Institute in London (now City University London) qualifying in July 1910.

After being caught driving a motorcycle without rear lights at Mickleham, Surrey, he was fined February 1914. The same week he was fined 20s at Acton Police Court, for driving at 29 miles an hour on the High Road in Chiswick.

Career

Handley Page

He joined Handley Page in 1912, becoming head of the design department, when only 21. Post war, demand for aircraft dropped and Handley Page was able to release him in 1921 to go to Japan as part of the Sempill Mission to build up Japan's naval aviation. S. Richards took his place at Handley Page. In 1923 he became Chief Designer of Handley Page. Handley Page had its design department at Woodley, Berkshire. In May 1924, he was given the Order of the Rising Sun by Japan.

After his return to Handley Page in 1924, Volkert started work on the Handley Page Hare and Handley Page HP.38 heavy night bomber. Volkert then designed the large HP.42 airliners for Imperial Airways that flew long distance from the UK to parts of the Empire.

The Handley Page Hampden was designed in 1933, and first flew on 21 July 1936. It entered service with 49 Sqn in September 1938.

The Handley Page Halifax, of which he was responsible for the design, first flew on 25 October 1939. The aircraft was designed with Gustav Lachmann.

On Monday 20 April 1942 a programme on the BBC Forces Programme, at 8pm, was devoted to his work as an aircraft designer, notably of RAF four-engined bombers.

In early 1944, 1,200 Halifaxes were produced in six months. Two-fifths of Britain's heavy bombers in World War II were Halifaxes. It entered service with 35 Sqn on 23 November 1940 at RAF Linton-on-Ouse, carrying out its first night-raid on 11 March 1942 over Le Havre. Most of the Halifaxes flown from England were with the RCAF in North Yorkshire as No. 6 Group RCAF.

Personal life

He married Violet Elizabeth Haley, of Hurlingham, on 21 July 1928 in Isleworth, in Brentford).; at the time he lived in Grove Park, Hounslow. They had a son Alan Charles (born in 1937) and a daughter Jane (born on 7 November 1938), when living at 42 Beaufort Road in Ealing (a few hundred metres east of Hanger Lane, the North Circular Road). Nearby was the home of Prof J.D. McGee, the Australian inventor of the television camera.

By 1975 he had retired to Spain. He died in Spain aged 88. His wife died in February 1990 in Uckfield.

His son Alan was on married Saturday 11 July 1970 at Westerham church to Lindsey Richards, daughter of Terence Charles Richards,( Chief geophysicist BP) of The Burgage in Westerham, where the reception was held. One of the bridesmaids was Alan's sister Jane, and the vicar was Canon Aidan Chapman. At the time, George lived in Wonersh in Surrey, and had built a house in Benal Madena and latterly an apartment in Fuengirola in Spain. Alan died on 30 September 1995, having lived on Vale Road in Mayfield and Five Ashes in the north of East Sussex.

He has two surviving granddaughters Louise (1971) and Rosalie (1972) Louise has 4 children: Francis Chapman (actor and producer) Christa, Charlotte and Caspar ( Vienna Boys Choir 2017 to 2025) Chapman

See also

• Roy Chadwick and Stuart Davies (engineer), responsible for the Avro Lancaster (an updated Avro Manchester)
• Claude Lipscomb designer of the Short Stirling

Notes

1. In 1950 Bernard, as head of the publisher Alfred Lengnick & Co, asked the composer Sir Malcolm Arnold to write a piece which became his 'English Dances', later the theme of What the Papers Say

References

1. Middlesex County Times Saturday 30 December 1922, page 6
2. Daily Mirror Wednesday 9 March 1927, page 20
3. West Middlesex Gazette Saturday 14 December 1929, page 12
4. Nottingham Guardian Thursday 21 July 1910, page 3
5. Middlesex County Times Wednesday 18 February 1914, page 3
6. ^ Barnes, p30
7. Flight Global 1953
8. London and China Express Thursday 15 May 1924, page 6
9. Steel, T.I. (28 November 2014). Bombing Hitler: One man's war with Bomber Command. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-78462-044-8. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
10. Gloucestershire Echo Monday 20 April 1942, page 3
11. Lincolnshire Echo Monday 20 April 1942, page 2
12. Gloucester Citizen Monday 20 April 1942, page 7
13. Manchester Evening News Monday 20 April 1942, page 4
14. "Pesonals" (PDF). Flight. 26 July 1928. p. 653. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2015.
15. West Middlesex Gazette Saturday 12 November 1938, page 12
16. Belfast Telegraph Wednesday 19 February 1975, page 3
17. Kent & Sussex Courier Friday 27 September 1996, page 72

• Barnes, Christopher Henry (1987). Handley Page Aircraft Since 1907. Putnam.

External links

• Halifax bomber production

• 1891 births
• 1978 deaths
• Alumni of City, University of London
• Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
• English aerospace engineers
• Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society
• Handley Page
• People from Ealing
• People from Fulham
• People from the Borough of Waverley
• Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 6th class