Inventor of the wind-up radio
Born: May 13, 1937;
Died: March 5, 2018
TREVOR Baylis, who has died aged 80, was colourful inventor who devoted most of his life to the creation of new devices and technology and protecting those who created them. His most famous invention was the wind-up radio, which he created in the 1990s after hearing the suggestion that educational programmes on the radio could help halt the spread of Aids in Africa.
He first showed an aptitude for invention early in life - one of his favourite toys as a child was Meccano - but he worked his way through an eccentric list of jobs before dedicating himself to inventing full-time later in life. At one point, he was a stuntman; he also worked for a circus in Germany and for a swimming pool manufacturer.
He was a Londoner by birth and did not show much academic ability at school - he left when he was 15 without any qualifications. In 1959, he was called up for national service and served as a PE instructor with the Royal Sussex Regiment.
On demob, he was unemployed for several months before finding a job with Purley Pools, which set him on the road to becoming an inventor full-time - in the 1960s, he developed one of the first chlorination systems for swimming pools.
By his mid 40s he had left work to devote his life to inventing, but he later claimed that at first he was naive in trying to find funding for his work. One of his first areas of work was aids for people with disability, but he said he ended up being ripped off by financiers in the city. Support for young inventors later became one of the passions of his life, which led to the formation of Trevor Baylis Brands, a company designed to help young inventors turn their ideas into products.
He developed the wind-up radio in 1992 with the aim of helping people in the Third World who do not have access to electricity or batteries. Having had his fingers burned in the past, he ensured that his financial interest in the radio was secure, although he was later frustrated that other companies were able to produce similar products. The radio was first produced in 1994 and at one point some 120,000 were coming off the production line every month.
Baylis, who was awarded a CBE for services to intellectual property in 2015, had been seriously debilitated later in life, having suffered from Crohn's disease.
He was awarded an OBE in 1997 for his radio design and met the Queen at Windsor Castle to receive his CBE in 2015.
David Bunting, who runs Trevor Baylis Brands, said Baylis had been ill for a long time and had no living relatives.
Paying tribute to his colleague, Mr Bunting said: "He made an enormous difference as the sole inventor in this company and did a tremendous amount to publicise their role and the importance of the inventions."
Baylis is believed to have died of natural causes in his home on Eel Pie Island, in Twickenham, south-west London.
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