Captain WH Richards

Who was he?

Soldier, Journalist, Promoter, Entrepreneur, Model Engineer, Roboticist, World traveller

WH in army uniform, date unknown.
© Richards Family Robot Archive

Captain William Henry Richards (WH) was a man who wore many hats! Born near Totnes, Devon, England in 1868 he began his career as a printer from which he progressed to becoming a journalist. He and his first wife, Thirza had four children and eventually settled in Camberwell, London.
He was a soldier, having served in the Devon Territorials and he was a war veteran who served in both the Boer War and the First World War, where it appears that he was a war correspondent. At different times he was a journalist for the Plymouth-based Western Morning News, and later, the Manchester Guardian, The Illustrated London News and the Daily Sketch. WH was a member of the Press Club in London and later as he became more entrepreneurial, he was the proprietor of the London News Agency in Fleet Street, a speciality agency involved in sales and marketing. He was widowed in 1929 and remarried in 1930 to Winifred, his secretary.

WH was definitely a visionary and an opportunist and someone who knew how to use the media and publicity to his best advantage. He was also an amateur engineer, keen on models and early technology. He must have been quite intrigued by Karel Čapek’s play, Rossum’s Universal Robots (1920), later performed in London and which is credited for being the first time the word ‘robot’ was used. By the time he was Acting Secretary of the Society of Model Engineers in London in 1928, he had the idea to build a mechanical man to open the exhibition at the Royal Horticultural Halls when the Duke of York was unable to do so. Thus Eric, the first British robot was born with RUR emblazoned on his chest.

He went on to conceive and have built an improved robot 'George' in 1930 by London-based Research Engineers Ltd and which he further co-developed with his son, WE Richards, a motor engineer and WW1 veteran . They travelled extensively together promoting George culminating in a tour of Australia lasting several months from 1935 - 1936. Eventually the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 seems to have put an end to this activity. The last archive reports we have of his continued development and public appearances with George are in 1938. We know WH retired to a country cottage in Gomshall, Surrey and he died on Christmas day 1948.

World traveller

WH poses in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during his tour to Australia with George in 1935, photo taken by his son WE Richards.
© Richards Family Robot Archive

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If you have any information relating to Captain WH Richards, WE Richards or Eric, George and Robert Robots we would love to hear from you as there are still so many gaps in the fascinating story of WH and his robots- not least the whereabouts of Eric and George or Robert!!