Frederick Marten Hale

Lore & Background

Frederick Marten Hale was born in Bristol in 1863, the son of Matthew Henry Hale. He was educated at Devon County School in West Buckland and in Brussels, Belgium. He initially specialized in hydraulic and fire engineering before switching to the design and manufacture of explosives in 1895. He became a director of the Cotton Powder Company and controlled the Roburite & Ammonal company, both of which manufactured explosives for mining and warfare. Hale lived in Bromley, Kent, and was a member of the Junior Constitutional Club, the Bromley and County Club, and Sundridge Park Golf Club.

Hale became interested in hand grenades after observing their successful use by Japanese troops in the 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War. He patented his own hand grenade in 1906, which was initially rejected by the War Office but later adopted as the No. 2 grenade during the First World War. He also developed the Hales rifle grenade in 1908, which was exported to several countries and saw extensive use during the war. Hale struggled to meet wartime demand due to the grenade's complicated design and fuse, which was manufactured by Dynamit Nobel. He refined the design three times during the war, producing the No. 20, No. 24, and No. 35 models, each simpler and more reliable than the last. Some 10 million Hales rifle grenades were used during the war.

In 1912 Hale invented the Hale aircraft bomb, the only aerial bomb available to British forces at the start of the First World War. It was used in the first destruction of a Zeppelin in its hangar and the first downing of a Zeppelin by an aircraft. Hale also developed a depth charge for the Royal Navy in November 1914, though it was not the first such weapon—that distinction belongs to Herbert Taylor's 1913 design. After the war, he successfully sued the British government for infringing his rifle grenade patents, with the case settled in his favor in 1924. He died on 2 February 1932 at Torquay in Devon.

Reader's Guide

Frederick Marten Hale's significance lies in his dominance of British grenade design in the years before the First World War, a period when official interest was minimal. His Hales rifle grenade, despite being complex and expensive, became the standard British rifle grenade and was used in vast quantities during the war. Hale's work also extended to aerial warfare and anti-submarine warfare, with his aircraft bomb and depth charge being pioneering weapons. His post-war legal victory against the British government for patent infringement was a notable assertion of inventor's rights. However, his designs were criticized for being overengineered and costly compared to simpler alternatives like the Newton-Pippin grenade. Hale's legacy is that of a prolific inventor whose weapons, though imperfect, filled critical gaps in British military capability at the outbreak of the First World War.

Did You Know?

• Hale's rifle grenade was dismissed by a Woolwich Arsenal draftsman as 'a crazy and audacious monstrosity'.
• Hale sent a silver replica of a 20 lb Hale aircraft bomb to the Air Department to commemorate the first downing of a Zeppelin by an aircraft.
• Hale's depth charge, developed in November 1914, was not the first for the Royal Navy—that was Herbert Taylor's 1913 design.