A LIFE UNEARTHED – FRANK MORGAN GILES

So often when researching the stories of famous naval architects, family shipyards or sailors, we spend our time listing what they did, where and when. Most times you can only guess what people felt about their life’s achievements.

Frank Morgan Giles, of course, was remarkable in the three fields of design, construction and competition. He is also remarkable because his professional influence extended from first setting up his own business around the turn of the last century, until his death in 1964. He was driving his ideas forward at a Morgan Giles board meeting only seven weeks before he died.

In some senses Frank’s biography can be divided into two parts: the years he shared with his wife Ivy, and the cold decades after she died so suddenly and unexpectedly, following a stroke, in December 1937. He learned his trade from gentle mentor Pengelly who taught him to be “an artist with the adze”, how to aim for the highest standards in his work, and to embrace lifelong teetotalism. He designed and built small craft, both in Shaldon at the mouth of Devon’s River Teign, and then at Hammersmith in west London. Later he linked up professionally with Harry May, later of Berthon Boats, until their huge bust up just before World War One,