Ernest Hives, 1st Baron Hives

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Ernest Walter Hives, 1st Baron Hives (21 April 1886 – 24 April 1965), was a British engineer who led Rolls-Royce’s aero engine work and helped Britain win the air war in World War II. He was born in Reading, Berkshire, and started his career in a small garage before joining C.S. Rolls in 1903 after fixing Rolls’s car. He became chief test driver in 1908 and led the Rolls-Royce team in the 1913 Austrian Alpine Trial.

During the First World War the company developed its first aero engine, the Eagle, and Hives became Head of the Experimental Department in 1916. The Eagle powered the Vickers Vimy on the first direct transatlantic flight in 1919. In 1920 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

Hives helped develop later engines, including the Buzzard, which led to the Rolls-Royce R-series used on the Schneider Trophy winners in 1929 and 1931, and most importantly the Merlin engine. In 1936 he became general works manager and in 1937 joined Rolls-Royce’s board. He arranged the creation of shadow factories to boost Merlin production, a crucial move when war came. By 1945 Rolls-Royce had built about 160,000 Merlins, powering aircraft such as the Hurricanes, Spitfires, and Lancasters.

In the early 1940s he pushed Rolls-Royce toward jet engines. In 1943 he arranged for Rover to exchange its gas turbine work for Rolls-Royce’s Nottingham factory, giving Rolls-Royce a foothold in jet propulsion and helping bring in the Welland, the company’s first jet engine.

After the war, Hives became managing director in 1946 and chairman from 1950 to 1957. He was made a Companion of Honour in 1943 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Hives in 1950. He also helped with the UK’s nuclear submarine programme and led the National Council for Technological Awards from 1955 to 1960.

He died in London in 1965. He had married Gertrude Warwick in 1913. They had several children, including John, who succeeded him as Baron Hives; another son, Edward, was killed in action in 1940, and another son, Benjamin, served as a Royal Air Force pilot.