Harold Roxbee Cox was born on 6 June 1902 in Handsworth, a suburb of Birmingham, the son of William John Roxbee Cox and Amelia Roxbee Cox (née Stern). Educated at Kings Norton Grammar School (now King's Norton Boys' School), at the age of 16 he left and joined the Aircraft Design Department of the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge, which was at that time, designing and building light aircraft such as the Whippet and Kestrel. Guided by the Chief Designer John Kenworthy, he was responsible for the design of the tail unit of the single-seat Whippet. When Austin's aviation interests failed in 1920, Cox was transferred to the workshops to work with the apprentices, and worked towards an external University of London BSc, which he gained with first class honours.

In 1922 he left Longbridge for London, where he began studying for both a PhD and a DIC (Diploma of the Imperial College) at Imperial College London in the aerodynamics and instabilities of wings. Following graduation, in July 1924 he joined the state-financed Airship R101 engineering team at the Royal Airship Works, Cardington.

After the R101 tragedy, the work that had been planned for the R100 was cancelled, and Roxbee Cox began working on the development of aeroplanes at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. It was here that he contributed to aircraft safety with his studies on the problem of wing flutter and the stability of structures.

By 1936, with the imminent possibility of war, an Air Defence Department was founded at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, and Roxbee Cox became its head. Much of the work carried out there was with barrage balloons. There were two aims to this research. Allied balloons needed to be able to bring down enemy aircraft, and conversely friendly aircraft needed to get through any barrages unscathed.

The Air Registration Board came into being as a result of the work of the Gorell Committee. It was incorporated in February I937 and started work on April 1 of that year. In March 1938 Roxbee Cox was appointed to the post of chief technical officer and set about recruiting in team of technical assistants whose tasks included reporting to him on the airworthiness of the aircraft they were investigating so that he could make a recommendation to the Air Ministry that a Certificate of Airworthiness could be issued. Interrupted by the war, his service to the ARB was renewed first as consultant and member of the board, later (as Sir Harold Roxbee Cox) as its vice chairman and finally (as Lord Kings Norton) as its chairman.

Immediately war was declared, Roxbee Cox was transferred back to Farnborough as Superintendent of Scientific Research and was then moved to the new Ministry of Aircraft Production in May 1940, as Deputy Director of Scientific Research. He dealt with a whole range of wartime projects, and was promoted to become Director of Special Projects in 1943, with special responsibility to work on jet engines.

Roxbee Cox founded, and chaired, the Gas Turbine Collaboration Committee, helping to pool ideas and experience in the burgeoning technology of jet propulsion. In 1944 the Minister of Aircraft Production, Sir Stafford Cripps, nationalised Power Jets, making Roxbee Cox both chairman and managing director. Power Jets was restyled again in 1946 as the National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE) with Roxbee as its Director.

In 1948 Cox moved from the National Gas Turbine Establishment to become Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Fuel and Power, where he applied his gas turbine knowledge for the benefit of power generation.

On 25 June and 23 July 1943, as the vice-president of the Royal Aeronautical Society (he was later to become president from 1947 to 1949), Roxbee Cox had chaired two open meetings to discuss the education and training of aeronautical engineers. The eventual result of these was the founding of The College of Aeronautics at Cranfield, which opened in October 1946. In 1953, Roxbee Cox was appointed one of three new Deputy Chairmen on the Board of Governors, and in 1962, on the death of Sir Frederick Handley Page, he became the Board's chairman.

Roxbee Cox was awarded a knighthood in the 1953 New Year Honours.

In 1954 Roxbee Cox left the civil service to begin a second career in industry, and over the next twenty years he served on the boards of companies as diverse as the British Printing Corporation, the engineers Ricardo, and chemicals company Hoechst UK. He also chaired the packaging company Metal Box and the paint-makers Bergers, Jenson and Nicholson (now Berger Paints India), and was President of the Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association for 33 years.

Playing a wider role in business, Roxbee Cox was involved with a number of industry bodies. He was the Chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and President of both the National Council for Quality and Reliability and the Institute of Marketing.

When Roxbee Cox was honoured with a life peerage on 22 June 1965, he took the title Baron Kings Norton, of Wotton Underwood in the County of Buckinghamshire.

Harold Roxbee Cox, The Lord Kings Norton of Wotton Underwood, PhD, DIC, FEng, FlMechE, Hon FRAeS, died on 21 December 1997.

Biography References

1. The Aeronautical Journal, April 1999 (Royal Aeronautical Society)
2. Cox, (Harold) Roxbee, Baron Kings Norton (1902–1997), aeronautical engineer, Anne Pimlott Baker (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press, 2004), via Wikipedia
3. Lord Kings Norton Archive at Cranfield University