H H Groves

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Celebrating 100 years of tethered hydroplane racing

H. H. Groves, engineer

When Desoutters transferred their premises from Baker Street to the Edgware Road at Hendon in 1924, Herbert, Florence and the children moved to a new home in Queens Walk, Kingsbury, where another son John was born in 1929. By the end of the decade, flash steam was being overtaken by IC engines, especially in planes, and for the time being Groves turned his attention to building steam locomotives. The first engine he completed was a 2 ½" gauge LBSC designed ‘Fayette’ to be followed by the 5" gauge ‘Pioneer’. Construction on the engine designed by N.D Willoughby began in 1933 with Groves spending an average of 20 hours a week in the workshop. The completed chassis was exhibited at the 1934 ME exhibition and by 1936 Exhibition was running on the SMEE track where it won a special trophy, donated by Jim Crebbin. Groves also built a ground level track in the garden of 32, Queens Walk, where the family would enjoy rides behind the loco sitting on a truck, while the driver assumed a most uncomfortable position on a flat driving trolley. The locomotive was described in detail by Groves in a series of articles in ME during 1936.


Left: Pioneer around 1936. Centre: 1935 Irene, Bert, John & Ken at rear. Driver Cedric Harpley. Right: John, HHG & Bert.

Having finished ‘Pioneer’, Groves was persuaded by some his friends to contribute again to the design of flash steam model aircraft. Around 1935, he produced two complete steam plants, mounted on frames that enabled them to be attached directly to the fuselage of a model. One of the plants he kept and the other was ‘fitted to a model aeroplane of design and construction quite comparable to the engine’ by R.J. Trevithick. The smaller of the two plants, weighing just 8oz, was described in ME in April 1936. From 1912 onwards Groves contributed some 50 or more articles and letters to the ME and other magazines describing his projects, offering advice on constructional techniques and discussing various aspects of ‘design philosophy. Many of these articles were incredibly detailed and illustrated with numerous photographs and very precise engineering drawings.

In the early years of the second war, ‘Pioneer’, along with its trucks and track was sold to George Lutz who had moved to nearby Greenhill, when the family bakery in Holborn was destroyed during the Blitz. This is where family connections are somewhat uncanny, as George Lutz, who used to race full sized hydroplanes on the nearby Welsh Harp, had married Fred Westmoreland’s daughter Edna and also became Vice Chairman of the MPBA. It seems likely that Groves, Lutz and Westmoreland had become acquainted through their mutual involvement with tethered hydroplanes and the Victoria Club.

Having risen to the position of general manager, Herbert Groves decided in 1937 that working for Desoutters was becoming too stressful, as he was essentially an engineer rather than a manager, so decided to retire at the age of 55. On of his first tasks after retiring was a ‘super spring clean’ of his workshop where he unearthed the remains of two flash steam hydroplanes that he decided to dispose of. As he did not want to sell the boats, Edgar Westbury was entrusted with the task of finding good homes for them, and after describing each in some detail in Model Engineer in July 1938, asked for interested parties to contact him and then he would make the decision as to where they went.

The first was the original 'miniature hydroplane' and the second a metre boat described as ‘Irene IV’. This had a Duralumin hull, similar in style to the earlier 24" boat, which meant it could not be one of the ‘Irene’ series as the illustration of Irene IV, left, confirms. The motor was the same twin as used in all the previous boats, but the steam generator was twin coiled with a twin burner blowlamp. Recent research has determined that ETW made an error in identification and that it was actually the last boat Groves built, ‘Berti’.

Eventually Westbury announced that the ‘Miniature hydroplane’ had been given to a Mr A Jones in Speke, Liverpool, while the metre boat had gone to a Mr Bullivant in Minehead Somerset.

Groves was far from idle in his retirement, constantly coming up with ideas and gadgets, including the diaphragm aquarium pump that is so familiar to this day. As well as building at least three 35mm cameras, he also came up with a novel photographic developing tank that would separate roll film from the paper backing and then develop it in broad daylight. He offered the idea to Kodak who wanted to buy it outright, but he was so convinced of its future that he preferred royalties on each tank produced, which they refused. Of course, as so often happens, the daylight-loading tank became a common item and although Herbert held the patent for it, did not receive a single penny for his idea.

His ingenuity and skill was utilised in a most unusual fashion during the Second war. Son Kenneth worked at the GPO research establishment at Dollis Hill and was involved in the construction of ‘spy radios’ and in particular grinding the frequency control crystals. He was faced with difficulty in mounting these crystals and presented father with the problem. Herbert came up with a simple solution for a frame that was met with disbelief that it had come from a ‘garden shed’ workshop, but nevertheless was adopted and used throughout the war. He was given the contract to make the frames and ended up working from 9 in the morning until 9 at night, 5 or 6 days a week to satisfy demand. Apart from all his modelling interests, Groves was also a very keen sailor, enjoying this more leisurely pursuit on the Thames above Teddington Lock and on the lake at Aldenham near Elstree, so he stipulated that he wanted one day off per week to go sailing, which he did.

Model aircraft were never far from Groves’ mind having built rubber-powered Wakefield models and a plane along the same lines intended for a more modern flash steam plant. With the arrival of the small diesel engine after the second war, Groves came up with a novel way of combining the power of the IC motor with the characteristics of a rubber-powered model. Lawrence Sparey produced a design for a 5cc diesel suitable for home construction, which Groves scaled down, firstly to 1/3^rd size and then to ½ size, describing his experiments in Model Mechanic in 1947.

The 1/3^rd size motor of 0.189cc capacity was installed in a 25" span model of a Leopard Moth that weighed just 4oz.

The idea behind these diminutive motors was to mount them in unit with a compound reduction gearbox on a frame in order to drive a very large propeller slowly to improve efficiency. It would seem that three of these units were built for different sized motors for Wakefield style airframes, the last in the early 50s.

Left: Original Groves engine and gear drive unit. Photo courtesy of Ken Croft.

Towards the end of the decade, Groves, along with his son Herbert (Bert), moved into ultra miniature railway modelling, building electrically powered locomotives and complete layouts to a scale of just 2mm to 1ft. This is reckoned to be the smallest scale that it is possible to work in and retain realistic and functional models. By 1960 they had perfected the technology to the extent that their layout ran faultlessly throughout the Model Railway Exhibitions of 1961/2/3/5. So successful were they in this venture that they created the wheel standards and profiles that are still in use to the present day and Bert was honoured by being elected as President of the 2mm Association.

Right:- HHG with son Bert, diminutive 4-6-2 locomotive and part of 'Rydes Vale'.

During the early 60s, Groves’ health was beginning to deteriorate and he was beginning to find it a struggle to maintain the level of engineering and activities that he had been used to. Early in 1965 he contracted pneumonia and on 25^th January 1965, Herbert Harry Groves died of heart failure. The ‘Rydes Vale’ layout was exhibited at the Model Railway Exhibition of that year by Bert as a tribute to his father and his engineering skills and innovation.