A will be unveiled in honour of Rowland Emett OBE, inventor and creator of whimsical machines.
The memorial plaque will be revealed at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday, September 6, in the exhibition celebrating – the largest ever display of Emett creations.
Born in 1906, Frederick Rowland Emett spent his formative years in Birmingham. He went on to become a prolific cartoonist for Punch magazine, an artist, inventor and builder of daft machines – the most famous of which appeared in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
During the Second World War Emett worked with Rolls Royce and is said to have put an extra foot on to the length of a Stirling Bomber’s fuselage because he “didn’t have the faintest idea what he was doing”.
The inventor died in 1990 with his work largely forgotten, until Birmingham architect and Emett admirer Tim Griffiths set about piecing together more information, to found The Rowland Emett Society.
As awareness and appreciation spread, more and more of Emett’s secrets filtered their way into the public domain.
The Emett exhibition at the BMAG Gas Hall has been open since May, with thousands of visitors learning more about the ‘visionary’ inventor.
The plaque will ultimately be sited on Ludgate Loft Apartments in , formally Siviter Smith, the engraving firm that Emett worked for in the 1920s.
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It will be unveiled by Toby Watley, Director of Collections Birmingham Museum Trust, Christine Cushing, Chairman Birmingham Civic Society and Mr Griffiths of The Rowland Emett Society. Organisers are hopeful Emett family members will also be in attendance.
Marvellous Machines: The Wonderful World of Rowland Emett is open daily at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Gas Hall until September 21.