Major FW Smith receives his long service award from son Barry Smith.
1946 Major Smith (right) receives a long service certificate for 37 years service.
In 1932, Major Smith, Royal Enfield’s Managing Director and son of our founder, RW Smith predicted that one day, Bullets would be found all over India, decades before our venture into the subcontinent. A man of remarkable vision, Major Smith, himself an avid rider, oversaw the company’s progress and was even awarded the CBE, in recognition of his and Royal Enfield’s contribution in the Second World War.
’It is not too fanciful to anticipate the day when "Bullets" will be flying peaceably about the countryside, from Calcutta to Bombay and from Himalayas to Cape Comorin”. Major Frank Walker Smith, November 1932.
The prophetic words, uttered by Royal Enfield’s Managing Director, were published in the Indian and Eastern Motors - Motor Cycle and Cycle Supplement back in January 1933.
To give some context to Major Smith’s remarkable foresight, the Bullet range of versatile, sports motorcycles had just enjoyed their British launch – and he did not consider them to be, at that time, ideally suited to India’s road conditions. ‘For the time being, no doubt’ he wrote, ‘India is best served by the more heavily built full roadster type of machine.’
Little did he know just how extensively the post-war Bullet would be used by the Indian Army 20 years later – and how important that country would be to Royal Enfield’s future.
Major Smith was the son of Royal Enfield founder, RW Smith. Usually known as Bob Walker Smith or ‘The guv’nor’, he formed the Enfield Cycle Co. at just 35-years-old, alongside fellow entrepreneur, Albert Eadie.
Royal Enfield: Grown from Seedling
RW Smith served his apprenticeship in the workshops of the Great Western Railway, followed by further technical education at the Wolverhampton School of Art, where he won the Queen’s Prize for Machine Construction. He was soon employed as assistant works manager by bicycle parts manufacturer, D. Rudge & Co. of Coventry – a company that supplied cycle maker, Perry & Co., of Birmingham, where Albert Eadie was sales manager. In partnership, the pair acquired George Townsend and Co. of Hunt End, Redditch, planting the seedling from which Royal Enfield grew.
Royal Enfield founder RW (Bob Walker) Smith.
Bob was recognised as being the inventor, the engineering brain and behind-the-scenes organiser at Royal Enfield.Eadie, meanwhile, was the frontman and the marketeer hailed as being ‘the most successful cycle salesman this country has ever known’.
Many great advancements in design can be attributed to RW Smith, from the first Enfield bicycle of 1893, the prototype quadricycle of 1897 and, of course, the Royal Enfield motorcycle of 1901. Patent applications were plentiful too, including the famed Royal Enfield 2-speed gear and the cush drive hub.
1880s young RW Smith and penny farthing bicycle.
Innovative Designs
The design of Royal Enfield’s V-twin motorcycles leading up to WWI was seen as being so innovative, and their success in races so pronounced, that the Motor Cycle and Cycle Trader magazine of 1916 commented: ‘Almost the only notable exception was the Enfield, due perhaps to the independent, ‘never follow anyone’ style of man that is that mechanical genius, RW Smith.’
Frank Walker Smith joined his father at Royal Enfield in 1909 and was promoted to joint managing director in 1912. Two years later at only 25 years old, he levitated to the board of directors. He signed up in 1915 and became a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, flying sorties in France for the remainder of WWI. By the end of the conflict he was a Major, a rank he bore for the remainder of his life.
When Bob Walker Smith died in 1933, Major Frank became Royal Enfield’s sole managing director – and just two years later, chairman of the board. In recognition of his and Royal Enfield’s contribution to WWII, he was awarded a CBE, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, in 1949.
WWI Major Smith was made a Captain first in the Royal Flying Corps.
A Lucky Escape
Jean Russel-Jones, Major Smith’s daughter, recalls: ‘My father was a motorcyclist all of his life and I imagine in his youth he was a bit of a daredevil, driving motorbikes and cars as fast as possible. On one occasion he rode a motorbike down Unicorn Hill to see how fast he could go and still turn right into Windsor Street. Unfortunately, there was a coal lorry in the way. He was lucky to escape with a broken nose.’
Major Smith continued to ride motorcycles, including a 700cc Constellation, into his seventies. He died in 1962 while still Royal Enfield’s chairman, after a short illness caused by a broken hip.
The family character of Royal Enfield, with its leaders all keen motorcyclists, encouraged innovation and made the Enfield Cycle Co. an exciting place to work. However, as with many companies, the passing of the original founding family marked the beginning of the end.
Although Major Smith’s son, Barry, continued as the company secretary, the concern was acquired by E and HP Smith Ltd (no relation), a manufacturer of machine tools, static electrical equipment, electronics and equipment for the packaging industry and medicine, in November 1962. Within five years, with most major assets sold off, the Redditch factory closed.
Major FW Smith receives his long service award from son Barry Smith.
1946 Major Smith (right) receives a long service certificate for 37 years service.
Major Frank Smith visited the newly founded Enfield India factory in Madras shortly after its opening in 1956. We wonder if, at that time, he recalled his 1932 prediction that one day ‘"Bullets" will be flying peaceably about the countryside, from Calcutta to Bombay and from Himalayas to Cape Comorin’.
1956 Left to Right Harry Sandford, Major Smith, Major Mountford in Madras with Enfield India Ensign.
We hope the visit was one of his proudest moments and that he did remember his prophecy as he witnessed Bullets rolling off the new assembly line.
