| Authorised form of name | McMurtry; Sir; David Robert (1940 - 2024); engineer, inventor and business leader |
| Dates | 1940 - 2024 |
| Nationality | Irish |
| British |
| Place of birth | Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland |
| Date of birth | 05/03/1940 |
| Place of death | Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 09/12/2024 |
| Occupation | Engineer, inventor and business leader |
| Research field | Engineering |
| Activity | Education:
Mountjoy Schoo [now the Mount Temple Comprehensive School];
Career:
Moved to the United Kingdom (1958); Apprentice, Bristol Aeroplane Company (1958); Deputy Chief Designer and Assistant Chief of Engine Design, Filton, Rolls-Royce Holdings (1966); worked on Concorde's engines and designed his first trigger probe (1973); set up Reinshaw plc with his former colleague John Deer (1973); acquired the patents for his trigger probes from Rolls-Royce Holdings and began to exploit the patents himself (1987); became Royal Designer for Industry (1989); disposed of holdings entire holdings in Renishaw (2021); stepped down as executive chairman of Renishaw and remained on the board as a non-executive director (2024).
Memberships:
Royal Academy of Engineering
Awards/Medals:
General Pierre Nicolau Award
Honours:
CBE 1994: for services to science and technology, and in 2001 was appointed a Knight Bachelor for services to design and innovation. |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 19/05/2011 |
| Age at election | 71 |
| Relationships | Spouse: (m. 1966) Teresa Adams.
Children: 3 |
| PublishedWorks | RCN R81302 |
| OtherInfo | Engineer, inventor, and business leader who had been Chairman and Chief Executive of Renishaw for more than forty years. A world leader in measurement systems with over 3,000 employees in 32 countries, Renishaw plays a role in the inspection and manufacture of nearly all cars and aircrafts worldwide. David founded the company in 1973 when he was still an assistant chief designer at Rolls Royce. In order to conduct a measurement of an instrumentation pipe on one of Concorde's Olympus engines, he spent a weekend at home developing the first ever touch-trigger probe, an innovation which inspired him to establish his own company. |
| Source | The Royal Society Fellows Directory, Sir David McMurtry CBE FRS, [URL: https://royalsociety.org/people/david-mcmurtry-11938/; last accessed: 16/04/2025]
BBC News, Renishaw founder and Concorde engineer dies, Dave Harvey, 9 December 2024, [URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8xjq2wzddlo; last accessed: 16/04/2025]
The Engineer, Late great engineers: David McMurtry - engineer with values, Nick Smith, 10 Apr 2025, [URL: https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/in-depth/late-great-engineers-sir-david-mcmurtry-engineer-with-values; last accessed: 16/04/2025] |
| Code | NA9746 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/2011/28 | McMurtry, David Robert: certificate of election to the Royal Society | 19 May 2011 |