14 Facts About Trevor Baylis

Trevor Graham Baylis was an English inventor best known for the wind-up radio.

Trevor Baylis ran a company in his name dedicated to helping inventors to develop and protect their ideas and to find a route to market.

Trevor Baylis was born on 13 May 1937 to Gladys Jane Brown, an artist, and her husband, Cecil Archibald Walter Trevor Baylis, an engineer, in Kilburn, London.

Trevor Baylis grew up in Southall, Middlesex, and attended North Primary School and Dormers Wells Secondary Modern School.

In 1959, Trevor Baylis started his National Service as a physical-training instructor with the Royal Sussex Regiment and swam for the Army and Imperial Services during this time.

Trevor Baylis was awarded the 1996 World Vision Award for Development Initiative that year.

In 2001, Trevor Baylis completed a 100-mile walk across the Namib Desert, demonstrating his electric shoes and raising money for the Mines Advisory Group.

For many years, Trevor Baylis lived on Eel Pie Island on the river Thames.

Trevor Baylis regularly attended jazz performances at the Eel Pie Island Hotel.

Trevor Baylis was a pipe-smoker and in 1999, received the Pipe Smoker of the Year award from the British Pipesmokers' Council.

In 2013 it was reported that Trevor Baylis was in financial difficulties and was living in relative poverty, having made little money from his wind-up power invention's commercialization, having lost legal control of the product after it had been re-engineered by his corporate partners, and he was relying on a small income as a motivational after-dinner speaker.

Trevor Baylis died on 5 March 2018 at the age of 80 after a heart attack and having been afflicted with Crohn's disease in his final years.

Trevor Baylis was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for humanitarian services in the 1997 Birthday Honours, and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to intellectual property.

Trevor Baylis received honorary doctorates from Heriot-Watt University in 2003, Leeds Metropolitan University in 2005.