Harold Roxbee Cox was born in Birmingham on June 6, 1902.  He began his education at King’s Norton in 1912 and lived in nearby Station Road.  In 1918 at the age of 16, Roxbee Cox managed to persuade his father to let him leave the school and he took up the position of engineering apprentice at the Austin Motor Company, Longbridge.  In addition to working on motor vehicles, Roxbee Cox became involved in the design and building of aeroplanes. “They had already designed one or two successful aeroplanes and I was happily engaged with the flight trials of a new bomber and the design of the very first light aeroplane. We designed the Austin Whippet which flew in 1919, with a steel fuselage, folding wings and all sorts of novelties.  It really was, in those days, a tremendous step forward, and we built six of them”.

This saw the start of a long and illustrious career within the aviation industry for Harold Roxbee Cox.  After completing at BSc and PhD, he applied for a post in the new Royal Airship Works at Cardington, Bedford to work on the design of the R101. He headed the design team that built the giant airship at a cost of £700,000 and used two miles of steel girders.  Being the first member of the design team, it was natural that he wanted to take a place on the maiden voyage of the R101 in 1930. However, the sheer number of VIP’s who wanted to do the same made sure that he survived the worst disaster in British aviation history. Over 40 passengers died when the airship hit a hillside in France on its way to India.

From 1941 onwards, he was plunged into the development of the jet engine in collaboration with Sir Frank Whittle.  Roxbee Cox was appointed chairman and managing director of the state owned Power Jets (Research and Development) Ltd.   In 1948 he was appointed to be Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Fuel and Power and in 1953 was appointed a Knight Bachelor.  In the same year, he retired from the Civil Service and became vice-chairman of the governing body of the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield, which he had helped to form in 1944.  He then embarked on an industrial career which saw him collect a number of directorships.

In 1965 Sir Harold Roxbee Cox was created a life peer as Baron Kings Norton and in 1969 was installed as Chancellor of Cranfield University, formerly the Cranfield Institute of Technology.  He wrote numerous papers on the theory of structure, wing flutter, gas turbines, civil aviation and airships.  In October 1995, at the age of 93,  Lord Kings Norton return to the school to open a new Technology block where he was reunited with old school friends Mr Johnson Dobson and Mr Herbert Davey.  He died in Gloucestershire on 21^st December 1997.  The following day, he appeared in the Obituaries section of The Times newspaper where it is stated that “From his contributions to the building of the airship R101 to those of the development of the jet engine, combined with his work on scientific research and on technical education, together with the receipt of so many academic honours, his career embraced an almost unrivalled record of service in Britain’s national life”.