{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Roesch, Georges Henry''', born [[Geneva]] 15 April 1891:<ref name=Autocar196705>{{cite journal| authorlink = Ronald Barker| title = The invincible Talbot| journal = [[Autocar (magazine)|Autocar]] | volume = 126 nbr 3715| pages = 25–31 |date = 27 April 1967}}</ref> died 7 November 1969,<ref name=Motor197001>{{cite journal| authorlink = Anthony Blight| title = Engineer with a vision| journal = Motor| volume = nbr 3528| pages = 28–29|date = 31 January 1970}}</ref> automotive engineer, was the Swiss-born son of a German-born blacksmith turned Geneva garage operator and his French-born wife.<ref name=AB>Anthony Blight, ''Georges Roesch and the Invincible Talbot ''Grenville, London 1970</ref>
He came to England in 1914 from [[Delaunay-Belleville]], where he trained under Barbaroux, to work for [[Daimler Company|Daimler]]. With little English and a German surname and accent the subsequent outbreak of the First World War meant twelve months under a cloud of suspicion until the authorities gave him the benefit of the doubt. In 1916, aged 25, he was hired by the London firm of [[Clément-Talbot]] as Chief Engineer. He developed a 1750 cc touring car for production after the end of hostilities.<ref name=MS>Veteran to Classic, ''Motor Sport'' magazine, page 57 February 1991</ref> However in 1919 [[Talbot (automobile)|Talbot]] was acquired by [[Darracq and Company London]], and the following year the resulting combination brought in [[Sunbeam Motor Car Company|Sunbeam]] to form [[Darracq and Company London#S.T.D. Motors|S T D Motors]]. Talbot began to make the Coatalen and S T D Motors Paris designed Talbot 8-18 which was not a success. Roesch modified the design and turned it into a successful four-seater named Talbot's [[Talbot 10-23|10-23]]. The Talbot factory proved too small for volume production. Between 1920 and 1925 Roesch worked with STD under [[Louis Coatalen]] to develop a six-cylinder [[push-rod]] engine of striking simplicity and efficiency.<ref name=Motor197001/> [[File:Talbot 14-45 1929 fabric coupe (9314872861).jpg|thumb|1929 Talbot 14-45<br />fabric close-coupled faux cabriolet]] The first successful post war Talbot was the Georges Roesch-designed six-cylinder high-speed tourer, [[Talbot 14-45]], released in October 1926 for London's Motor Show. Roesch had been called back from Paris, where he was working under Coatalen, to the dilapidated Talbot works in 1925 and chose to design a relatively expensive low-volume car to fit Talbot's capabilities that might save the Talbot business. The 14-45 was the star of the 1926 Motor Show. From that point forward all Roesch's Talbot cars sold well. Certain weaknesses of the 14-45 were established and remedied and because it would comfortably reach 75 mph Roesch renamed the car his Talbot 75. His engine was "uncannily smooth" spinning effortlessly to provide its astonishingly high output.<ref name=MS/>
The [[Rootes Group]] took over Talbot in 1935. The first Rootes Sunbeam, named the Thirty, designed by Georges Roesch, was propelled with a new 100 mph 4503 cc straight-eight engine. There may have been as many as eight prototypes made and some were displayed at the 1936 Motor Show but the new model did not go into production and Roesch left Sunbeam-Talbot going to [[David Brown (entrepreneur)|David Brown]] in 1939 to develop a [[David Brown Ltd.#Tractor building|tractor]] design. Dispirited he left David Brown and joined [[Frank Whittle]]'s [[Power Jets]]. He continued to work on gas turbines for this rest of his career.<ref name=ADC>Anders Detlev Clausager. ''Sunbeam-Talbot & Alpine In Detail: 1935-1956'' 2010 Herridge & Sons / [[Michael C. Sedgwick|Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust]]. {{ISBN|9781906133139}}</ref>
==Character== Georges Roesch was not a boastful or articulate man.<ref name=MS/> An insight into his [[mwod:irascible|irascible]] perfectionism may be gained from the report that he refused ever to have a [[vacuum cleaner]] in his house because he found none of the existing vacuum cleaner designs satisfactory.<ref name=Motor197001/>
==Sources and further reading== {{reflist}}
==External links== * https://web.archive.org/web/20040810003108/http://www.sunbeam.org.uk/Talbot.htm * http://vea.qc.ca/vea/marques1/talboteng.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040624165537/http://vea.qc.ca/vea/marques1/talboteng.htm |date=24 June 2004 }} * http://www.talbotownersclub.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roesch, Georges}} [[Category:1891 births]] [[Category:1969 deaths]] [[Category:British automotive pioneers]] [[Category:Engineers from Geneva]] [[Category:Swiss emigrants to the United Kingdom]]