George William Patchett (23 December 1901 - before 31 December 1974) was a British motorcycle racer and engineer.

Career

In his early career, he competed as a motorcycle racer for motorcycle manufacturers such as

Brough Superior Brough Superior ( ) motorcycles, sidecars, and motor cars were made by George Brough in his Brough Superior works on Haydn Road in Nottingham, England, from 1919 to 1940. The motorcycles were dubbed the "Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles" by H. D. ...

, McEvoy and the Belgian arms company FN. At

Pendine Pendine (, "end of the dunes") is a village and Community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Situated on the northern shore of Carmarthen Bay and bordered by the communities of Eglwyscummin and Llanddowror, the population at the Unite ...

, Wales, he won the Welsh TT in 1925 and the Welsh TT sidecar in 1927 on Brough machines. In 1930 he was recruited by the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

arms manufacturer

František Janeček František Janeček (1878–1941) was the founder of Jawa motorcycles and an important figure in the development of the Czechoslovakian motorcycle industry. He died on 4 June 1941. Early life Janeček was born on 23 January 1878 in Klášter nad ...

, founder of the JAWA motorcycle company, to work as an engineer and a racer. Due to the economic recession Janeček wanted to build a cheaper motorcycle than their 500cc model. Patchett's contacts with the Villiers company enabled a new Jawa 175 Villiers to be designed around the Villiers 175cc two-stroke engine which proved very popular. Sterling SMG

Patchett was an amateur photographer and took photos and videos of the

Nazi Occupation of Czechoslovakia Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...

on 15 March 1939. At the outbreak of World War II, Patchett returned to England and started work under the auto-engineer

George Lanchester George Herbert Lanchester (1874 – 13 February 1970) was an English engineer. He was one of three brothers who played a leading role in the early development of the UK auto-industry. In 1909, following the departure from full-time involvemen ...

at the

Sterling Armaments Company The Sterling Engineering Company Ltd was an arms manufacturer based in Dagenham, famous for manufacturing the Sterling submachine gun (L2A3), ArmaLite AR-18 and Sterling SAR-87 assault rifles and parts of Jaguar cars. The company went bankrupt in 1 ...

in Dagenham, Essex, helping to gear up manufacture of the Lanchester sub-machine gun. On his way out of

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

he managed to throw prototype samples of Janeček's new anti-tank device over the wall of the British Embassy. By 1942, he was leading a design team to design a new sub-machine gun to the army's specification which was referred to as the "Patchett Machine Carbine". After successfully taking part in extensive army trials in the mid to late 1940s the

Sterling submachine gun The Sterling submachine gun is a British submachine gun (SMG). It was tested by the British Army in 1944–1945, but did not start to replace the Sten until 1953. A successful and reliable design, it remained standard issue in the British Army ...

was adopted by the British Army to replace the

Sten gun The STEN (or Sten gun) is a British submachine gun chambered in 9×19mm which was used extensively by British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and during the Korean War. The Sten paired a simple design with a low production co ...

and known by them as the "9mm Sterling sub-machine gun L2A1". A modified version, the L2A3, was the very popular Sterling Mk IV which saw service until the 1990s. In 1966, the High Court awarded Patchett £116,975 (£ as of ) for the British government's use of the machine gun he patented. The same amount was awarded to Sterling, which had sued for half a million pounds. Mr. Justice Lloyd-Jacob referred to Patchett as "a distinguished inventor and valued designer" in making the award.

References

English engineers Firearm designers British motorcycle racers 1901 births 1974 deaths {{UK-bio-stub