Roxbee Cox, Baron Kings Norton

Harold Roxbee Cox, Baron Kings Norton (6 June 1902 – 21 December 1997) was a British aeronautical engineer. He was notable for his contributions to British industry, particularly aeronautical engineering, and for his part in the establishment of Cranfield University.

Life Cox was the son of jeweller William John Roxbee Cox, of Handsworth, Staffordshire, and Amelia (née Stern). The statistician David Cox is a distant cousin. Born Harold Roxbee Cox, he was known as 'Roxbee' to his friends. As a child, his father took him to early air shows and air races, and his imagination was fuelled by pilots of the time such as Claude Grahame-White, B. C. Hucks and Gustav Hamel, beginning a lifelong fascination with aircraft.

Cox left Kings Norton Grammar School (now King's Norton Boys' School) at the age of 16 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, he was responsible for the design of the tail unit of the single-seat Whippet.

College of Aeronautics and Cranfield Institute of Technology

In the summer of 1943, as the vice-president of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Cox chaired two open meetings to discuss the education and training of aeronautical engineers. The Minister of Aircraft Production, Sir Stafford Cripps soon commissioned Sir Roy Fedden, a speaker at the meetings, to report on the state of aeronautical education. His 1944 report "A College of Aeronautics" was the blueprint for Cranfield. The College of Aeronautics opened in October 1946, and was truly a unique establishment. The concept of hands-on learning with access to aircraft and an airfield was completely revolutionary. In 1953, Roxbee 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. Years of negotiation followed, and university status and a royal charter were granted in 1969 with the college now officially renamed Cranfield Institute of Technology, and eventually - in 1993 - Cranfield University.

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

When 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 and his chosen motto, "Precision and Tolerance", was highly appropriate. He specifically intended these words to have a double meaning and they summed him up perfectly. They were to be interpreted in both their narrow engineering context, and also their broader, social context. He was a man with great skills in science. He was also a man whose success lay in his tolerance. It wasn't only that he was a good with people; he was also a diplomat. He believed that there shouldn't be divisions between disciplines: the arts and sciences, technology and management, commerce and education. It was an ethos that he lived by, successfully having careers in aviation, education and industry.

Personal life In July 1927 Cox married (Doris) Marjorie (1902–1980), eldest daughter of Ernest Edward Withers, an electrical engineer, of Northwood, Middlesex (now part of the London Borough of Hillingdon). They had two sons, Christopher (1928–2018) and Jeremy (b. 1932). He married his second wife, Joan Ruth, daughter of William George Pack, of Torquay, Devon (and formerly wife of K. A. Pascoe) in 1982. He died on 21 December 1997 at the age of 95.

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