I am not quite sure when I became old, but I think I must date it in my seventies when I retired from a variety of activities and settled into a more sedentary style of life. I retired from Dowty Rotol and Bergers (and so Hoechst UK) in 1975, from the Royal Institution in 1976, from Ricardo’s and British Printing Corporation in 1977 and sold Withers Estates, very profitably for the Withers family, in 1981.

I was left with the chairmanships of two tiny companies, Land-speed and Cotswold Research. While Landspeed has not served its purpose, Cotswold Research has its place in history. Both companies are concerned with the inventions of Professor Eric Laithwaite, who demonstrated in model and prototype form tracked hovercraft powered by the linear motor. Landspeed failed to develop this, through lack of funds, to a commercially viable transport system, though the Japanese appear to have done so. Cotswold Research, however, made a success of an adaptation of the linear motors to the separation of aluminium from scrap material and for their work, which ended in profitable industrial apparatus and a big saving in manpower, Mr A.P. Bird and I received the Prince of Wales Award in 1986.