Nicholas Kove (born Miklós Klein 1891 in Anarcs, Szabolcs County,

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

– died 17 March 1958 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) was a Hungarian-

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

businessman best known for founding the

Airfix Airfix is a British brand and former manufacturing company which produced Injection moulding, injection-moulded plastic model, plastic scale model kits. In the UK, the name 'Airfix' has become practically synonymous with plastic models of this typ ...

plastic model kit company.

Biography

His birth name was Klein but he magyarised this to Köves (pronounced "Kurvesh") and subsequently anglicised it to Kove. An energetic and resourceful man, he was a cavalry officer in the

Austro-Hungarian army The Austro-Hungarian Army, also known as the Imperial and Royal Army,; was the principal ground force of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. It consisted of three organisations: the Common Army (, recruited from all parts of Austria-Hungary), ...

in the First World War but was captured by the Russians. He was interned in a camp near the Korean border but escaped across Siberia with the help of Catholic priests. It took him four months to return home to Anarcs. After the war he worked as an assistant minister in the short-lived Communist government of

Béla Kun Béla Kun (, born Béla Kohn; 20 February 1886 – 29 August 1938) was a Hungarian communist revolutionary and politician who in 1919 governed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. After attending Franz Joseph University at Kolozsvár (today Cluj-N ...

. After the fall of the

Hungarian Soviet Republic The Hungarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived communist state that existed from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919 (133 days), succeeding the First Hungarian Republic. The Hungari ...

, he emigrated to

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

in 1922 with his wife Clothilde and baby daughter Margit. In 1934 the family moved to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

where Kove started a plastics factory; at the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

in August 1936, they fled to Milan. There Kove patented a process for stiffening

shirt collar In clothing, a collar is the part of a shirt, dress, coat (clothing), coat or blouse that fastens around or frames the neck. Among clothing construction professionals, a collar is differentiated from other necklines such as revers and lapels, b ...

s, which he called "Interfix". In the autumn of 1938, he moved his family from Milan to

, where he established Airfix Products in 1939, originally to manufacture rubber inflated toys. After the Second World War he switched to producing plastic combs, and was the first manufacturer to introduce a plastic injection moulding machine. For a while he was the largest supplier of die-stamped metal belt buckles to the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

. After an operation for cancer in 1950, he took on Ralph Ehrmann as assistant manager, who together with John Gray persuaded him to move into construction kits.

Death

Shortly after seeing Airfix become a public company in 1957, Kove died at his home at 252

Finchley Road Finchley Road is a designated arterial road in north-west London, England. The Finchley Road starts in St John's Wood near central London as part of the A41 road, A41; its southern half is a major dual carriageway with high traffic levels oft ...

, London, on 17 March 1958, three weeks after the death of his wife.

References

* Cadco.

Sources

*Arthur Ward. ''Airfix - Celebrating 50 Years of the Greatest Plastic Kits in the World''. Collins. 1999. *Arthur Ward ''The Boys' Book of Airfix'' *Plastic Warrior - ''Airfix - The Early Days''. 2004. The Birth of Airfix. Paul Reboul. *The Register. Margaret Elliott. ''The Times''. July 22, 2002. *Early Days at Airfix. ''Constant Scale'' - The Journal of the Airfix Collectors Club. No. 25 - Vol 7. No. 1 - 2006. *Early Days at Airfix. Update. ''Constant Scale''. No. 29 - Vol 8 No 1 - 2007. *Early Days at Airfix. Further Update. ''Constant Scale''. No. 30 - Vol 8 No.2 - 2007.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kove, Nicholas 1891 births 1958 deaths Austro-Hungarian Army officers Hungarian politicians 20th-century British businesspeople Hungarian Jews Hungarian refugees Hungarian emigrants to the United Kingdom