Charles Benjamin Redrup, the engineer and inventor, was born in Newport, South Wales in 1878. Raised in Barry, he designed and manufactured the unusual “Barry” motor cycle and went on to design a prodigious range of engines for First World War aircraft, motor cycles, cars, boats and buses. He carried out most of his development work in a simply-equipped home workshop, and often said that he made most of his engines with little more than “a knife and fork”. He was the inventor of the unique “Wobble-Plate” axial engines which powered a motor launch and a Crossley Motors motor car in the 1920s. A variant of the engine flew in a Simmonds Spartan aircraft in 1929. He lived in Bristol during the 1930s and several variants of his axial engines powered vehicles of the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company. During the Second World War he worked on top-secret armaments projects for the Lancaster and other aircraft. After the war he designed more motor-cycle engines and a large 2,000 horse-power axial aero engine. His name appears fleetingly in many reference works but no full description of his extensive and innovative work has been previously written.