Colonel Louis Frederick Rudston Fell

Colonel Louis Frederick Rudston Fell

 Louis Frederick Rudston Fell was not from Littleover but was from Yorkshire.  Rudston Fell, was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel William Edwin Fell J.P. and his wife Alice (nee Pickersgill-Cunliffe).  He was born at East Ayton, near Scarborough in the Yorkshire West Riding on the 13th January 1892.  He was educated at St George’s School, Windsor before doing an apprenticeship at the Doncaster Railway Works of the Great Northern Railway.  In 1920 he was married to Mary Dolores Maude (Mollie) Walker in Knaresborough, Yorkshire.  

Louis Frederick Rudston Fell enlisted in the Royal Navy in September 1914 at the outset of the First World War.  Prior to this his occupation was that of a Fitter and Turner.  L. F. R. Fell transferred to the Royal Flying Corps receiving the rank of Second Lieutenant on the 1st February 1915 and later the rank of Captain, rising to Lieutenant Colonel, automatically becoming a Wing Commander when the Royal Air Force was formed.  He retired in peacetime back to his old rank.  Towards the end of the war Rudston was in charge of the RAF Engine Repair Station at Pont de l'Arche, France.  By 1920 he was Head of Research and Development at the Air Ministry, Directorate of Research and in 1921 as a qualified aircraft engineer became a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.   

In the summer of 1939, Rudston prepared a new home at Moorway Lane.  This was a five bedroomed double-fronted Victorian house, on a 4-acre site that included a 2-acre paddock, formal gardens, tennis court, kitchen garden, orchard, and stabling.  The house had a heated conservatory, which overlooked farmland and the Trent valley, giving magnificent views.   It was purchased for £1,800.  The 1939 Register listed Rudston and his wife as living at the ‘Laurels’ Moorway Lane, (Littleover) Shardlow Rural District. 

Rudston Fell left the Air Ministry in 1928 and joined Rolls-Royce, moving on to Armstrong Siddeley, Coventry in 1933.  He returned to Rolls-Royce in 1939 as chief power plant design engineer and was head of the company's Belper office, subsequently he moved to Hucknall aerodrome.  By 1946 his position was that of technical sales manager.  

In 1944 Colonel Fell was a founder member of the Derby Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society being elected to the position of joint vice-chairman with another Littleover resident, Arthur Alexander Rubbra CBE also from Rolls-Royce, an employee of repute.  Both held these positions within the society for a number of years. 

1947 saw a design career change for Rudston, whilst still at Rolls-Royce, he ventured into railway engineering.  A new straight drive diesel-mechanical locomotive was to be built in the Derby Locomotive Works of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.  This locomotive, named the ‘Fell Diesel’, number 10100 had a 4-8-4 (4D4) wheel arrangement and incorporated a transmission and ancillary features invented by Lieut. Col. Fell’s company Fell Development Limited, and Ricardo and Company.  This prototype locomotive had six diesel engines, four producing a total of 2,000hp for driving through a single gearbox and two for driving the various auxiliary machines.  It was built in 1950, starting trials in January 1951 and beginning scheduled work on passenger trains in 1952.  The locomotive was withdrawn in 1958 and scrapped in July 1960.  Although a comparative success, the design was not perpetuated with British Railways succumbing to pressure from the large electrical engineering companies to go to diesel-electric. 

Louis Frederick Rudston Fell, died on the 27th November 1977, he was aged 85.  He is buried in St. Clement’s churchyard, Worlaby by Brigg, Lincolnshire. 

Among the awards that Lt.-Col. Fell received during his career were: Mentioned in Despatches (four times), Meritorious Service Medal (MSM), Territorial Force Efficiency Medal (TFEM), Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and Order of the British Empire (OBE).