Owen Finlay Maclaren, MBE (26 May 1906 – 13 April 1978) was the inventor of the lightweight baby buggy with a collapsible support assembly and founder of the Maclaren company.

Early life

He was born in

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

in Essex to Andrew Maclaren and Eva (née Friend). His father died in 1914. His family descended from the

Clan MacLaren Clan MacLaren ( gd, Cinneadh MacLabhrainn) is a Highland Scottish clan.Way, George and Squire, Romily. ''Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia''. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish C ...

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

. He attended

Marlborough College ( 1 Corinthians 3:6: God gives the increase) , established = , type = Public SchoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president = Nicholas Holtam , head_label = Master , head = Louis ...

and Blair Lodge Academy in

Polmont Polmont ( gd, Poll-Mhonadh) is a village in the Falkirk council area of Central Scotland. It lies towards the east of the town of Falkirk, north of the Union Canal, which runs adjacent to the village. Due to its situation in Central Scotland, ...

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had ...

. He studied at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes ...

, where he learnt to fly in

Cambridge University Air Squadron Cambridge University Air Squadron, abbreviated CUAS, formed in 1925, is the training unit of the Royal Air Force at the University of Cambridge and forms part of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. It is the oldest of 15 University Air Squadr ...

, qualifying as a pilot in 1928.

Design engineer

Esso

He first worked for

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic ...

. Then he moved.

Spitfire undercarriage

He designed

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

undercarriage legs when working for Maclaren Undercarriage Company Ltd, and while living in

West Drayton West Drayton is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and from 1929 was part of the Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District, which became part of Greater London in 1965. Th ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

. In 1944, he retired from aeronautical design, forming the company Andrews Maclaren that manufactured aircraft components.

The Maclaren Drift Undercarriage

In 1937, he designed a system for an undercarriage that could cope with cross winds, in which the main wheels could be set to a steering angle away from straight ahead, so that an aircraft could be landed safely in a "crabbing" attitude. Tests with several aircraft types were conducted during and after World War II. He designed the 'Maclaren Radiator' in 1943. It doubled the chances of an aircraft returning, if hit by a bullet.

Dunlop

After the war he helped to develop anti-skid (ABS) brakes (

Maxaret Dunlop's Maxaret was the first anti-lock braking system (ABS) to be widely used. Introduced in the early 1950s, Maxaret was rapidly taken up in the aviation world, after testing found a 30% reduction in stopping distances, and the elimination of ...

) for the aircraft division of Dunlop in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

. He formed Andrews Maclaren Ltd with Bill Andrews.

Collapsible baby buggy

The former

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

and designer of the

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Gri ...

undercarriage was inspired when his daughter visited from Moscow with his first grandchild (Anne Hambledon, born in 1962). His daughter had married George Hambledon of

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United State ...

, making many flights to London. After watching the parents struggle with the clumsy conventional pushchair, he used his knowledge of lightweight, collapsible structures to create a new generation of infant transport and inspire the design of future collapsible objects such as the Strida bicycle. He designed his first buggy in 1964, which was built in his medieval farmhouse stables in

Barby, Northamptonshire Barby is a village and civil parish about north of Daventry in Northamptonshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 2,336. Barby is located right off the M45 motorway a short spur from the M1 motorway to the A45 Tru ...

in England just south of

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

. He applied for a patent, on 20 July 1965, for his 6lb B01 prototype with lightweight

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

tubes receiving

Patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

No. 1,154,362. On 18 July 1966 he filed for an American patent, receiving

No. 3,390,893A. He then founded his company, the Maclaren Company, in 1965. Only after this design would aluminium tubes be used in other household equipment. The buggy went on sale in 1967, and roughly a thousand of them were manufactured that year. In 1976 that number rose to 600,000 buggies produced a year. He also designed the 'Gadabout folding chair' which was produced from 1961, and was commissioned by the Ministry of Health to design a larger folding buggy for larger children with disabilities called the 'Buggy Major' this buggy was designed on square tubes instead of the usual round tubes like the 'Baby Buggy', being produced around 1970. Today the modern version of the 'Baby Buggy' are sold in over 50 countries under the

Maclaren Maclaren is a manufacturer of baby buggies, strollers and carriers based in Norwalk, Connecticut. Product range Strollers based around Owen Maclaren's original design are sold in over 50 countries under the Maclaren brand. These include the Mac ...

brand based in

Long Buckby Long Buckby is a large village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. In 2020 the parish of Long Buckby, which includes the hamlet of Long Buckby Wharf, was estimated to have a population of 4,303. Long Buckby is hill top village, ...

Personal life

He was married to Marie Blacklock, and they had a son (who married on 15 June 1963, then moved to

Hatfield Peverel Hatfield Peverel is a village and civil parish at the centre of Essex, England. It is located 6 miles (10 km) north-east from Chelmsford, the nearest large city, which it is connected by road and rail. The parish includes the hamlets of ...

in Essex, having a son in March 1965 and a daughter in April 1968) and daughter (1937–90). His grand-daughter, Anne Hambledon, for whom the baby-buggy was designed, now lives in

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

. His eldest brother Bruce (who also attended the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

) married the granddaughter of

Charles George Arbuthnot Lieutenant General Sir Charles George Arbuthnot (19 May 1824 – 14 April 1899) was a British Army officer. He served in the Royal Artillery in the Crimean War and rose to become a senior officer in British India. Early life Arbuthnot was ...

, and also the niece of General Sir

Alexander Cobbe General Sir Alexander Stanhope Cobbe (6 June 1870 – 29 June 1931) was a senior British Indian Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commo ...

VC. In January 1978,

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

awarded him with an MBE in the

New Year's Honours List The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

Notes

References

* R. Roy. (2004). Creativity and Concept Design. (p. 63). Open University Worldwide Ltd. . * Rosalind Sharpe. (23 September 1995)
Mother of invention

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

. Retrieved 2008-04-01. * Annabel Freyberg. (2008). Design notebook: Baby buggy.

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

. * Per Mollerup. (2001). Collapsible: The Genius of Space-saving Design. (p. 114). Chronicle Books. . * John Gapper. (19 September 2003)
Wheels of fortune
FT.com. Retrieved 2008-04-01.

External links

Presentation on Owen Finlay Maclaren and the history of the Maclaren company

His granddaughter sees his inventions at Duxford

Audio clips

''The Indispensables''
– narrated by Lynn Truss on Radio 4 in July 2004

Patents

US Patent 2222850
Aircraft Undercarriage, dated 26 November 1940
US Patent 2315901
Endless Track Element for Aircraft and Land Vehicles, dated April 1943
US Patent 3124387
Seating structures, dated March 1964
US Patent 3390893
Structures for Folding Baby-Carriages, Chairs, and the like, dated July 1968
US Patent 3736021
Folding Wheel Chair, dated May 1973
US Patent 3968991
Collapsible Seat Structures, dated 13 July 1976
US Patent D246518
Baby Carriage, dated 29 November 1977
US Patent 4232897
Lie Back Buggy, dated 11 November 1980 (awarded posthumously) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maclaren, Owen Finlay Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge British company founders British manufacturing chief executives 20th-century British businesspeople 20th-century British engineers 1906 births 1978 deaths Members of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Marlborough College People from West Northamptonshire District People from Saffron Walden Supermarine Spitfire Sustainable transport pioneers