Sir Ernest John Hutchings Lemon (9 December 1884 – 15 December 1954) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

and later one of its three Vice-Presidents. During the run-up to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Lemon was made Director-General of Aircraft Production and made crucial improvements to aircraft production.

Biography

Lemon was born in the small village of Okeford Fitzpaine, in the registration district of

Sturminster Newton Sturminster Newton is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish situated on the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour in the north of Dorset, England. The town is at the centre of the Blackmore Vale, a large dairy agriculture region around w ...

, North

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

. His father was a carpenter, and his mother laundress for the Rectory next door, where his first work experience was as a "back door boy". The Rector recognised his potential, and when the Rector's daughter moved to Scotland she took Lemon with her, and he attended Heriot-Watt College,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. He served an apprenticeship with the

North British Locomotive Company The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park W ...

and then worked for the

Highland Railway The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the two smallest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north o ...

and for Hurst Nelson. In 1911, Lemon became Chief Wagon Inspector of the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. In 1917, he was made Carriage Works Manager at

Derby Works The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby railway sta ...

. In 1923, he was appointed Divisional Carriage and Wagon Superintendent at Derby. There he developed production line methods for the construction of

wagon A wagon (or waggon) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by Working animal#Draft animals, draft animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are i ...

s and

carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

s. Despite having little experience in locomotive engineering, in 1931 Lemon was appointed to the post of

chief mechanical engineer Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...

(CME) replacing the retiring Henry Fowler. After less than a year as CME however, Lemon was again promoted to Vice-President, Railway Traffic, Operating and Commercial, replacing J.H. Follows who retired due to ill health. Under his Vice-Presidency, the LMS undertook modernisation of their

motive power depot A motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds" or just "sheds". Facilit ...

William Stanier Sir William Arthur Stanier (27 May 1876 – 27 September 1965) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Biography Sir William Stanier was born in Swindon, where his f ...

had been head-hunted from the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

to replace Lemon as CME and revolutionised the LMS's locomotive policy. Lemon was a member of the

Engineer and Railway Staff Corps The Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps is a part of the Royal Engineers in the British Army Reserve. It is intended to provide advisers on engineering and logistics to the British Army at a senior level. Following its work creating the NHS Nightin ...

—a Territorial Army unit of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

; he joined as a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in November 1929, and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in April 1932. He resigned his commission in August 1943. During World War II, Lemon was made Director-General of Aircraft Production. He introduced "assembly-line methods" and standardisation which enabled production to be sped up to such an extent that, at the end of the Battle of Britain, the RAF had more operational aircraft than at the start of that Battle, while Germany had fewer. Lemon received a knighthood in the 1941 New Year's Honours list. He retired from the railway in 1943 and died in

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

in 1954.

References

External links

(Sir) Ernest John Hutchings Lemon
at steamindex.com * http://www.ernestlemon.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Lemon, Ernest 1884 births 1954 deaths Military personnel from Dorset 20th-century British Army personnel Alumni of Heriot-Watt University English railway mechanical engineers Locomotive builders and designers London, Midland and Scottish Railway people Engineer and Railway Staff Corps officers Officers of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor

Biography

References

Further reading

External links