Simon Clode the owner of WR has died of the demon cancer. He turned WR into a maker of the very best England had to offer, building guns and rifles unsurpassed by any of the big 3 there.

He is survived by 4 daughters, his wife having died in 2005.

Sad indeed. A fine fellow.

we are diminished...

Very sad news indeed.
RIP Simon, and condolences to the family and the Company as well.

Nick

Sorry to hear it. Hopefully someone of similar integrity will continue the work.

R. i. P.

I had often e-mail contact to him, for some articles, pp.
A great man!

Here is a link to the Westley Richards website and "the Explora Blog" where Trigger has written a tribute to Simon-

https://www.theexplora.com/

One has to admire how much he progressed Westley Richards on from where it was when his father owned it and re-established it as a rifle maker. And the new factiry, in an old enamel works, is beautiful. As I expressed to his daughter on visiting it.

It is good that the obituary is candid.

One can yet admire Simon Clode's achievement, and have sympathy for the family, but accept he did have like his father some character defects. He could indeed be brusque. To the extreme all too often. In spades. But what he achieved with Westley Richards is something truly great.

And he did this without going down the easy route, the lazy path, as did William Powell's new ownership of diminishing a respected two hundred year old name by putting it on re-branded imported Spanish products.

Thirty years ago few would doubt that of the Birmingham gunmakers Powell had, then, the name and the premises on Carr's Lane that both, arguably out trumped Westley's as it then was, in terms of gun making, and location, under Walter Clode. Simon Clode's supreme achievement and true epitaph is that he unquestionably has turned that on its head.

IMHO his legacy is to have brought back Westley's from the brink and restored it to being one of the great Birmingham gunmakers indeed as others have posted to re-establishing it as one of the great British gunmakers. And yet doing so by the difficult road, the hard route of selling product with a pride in being both 'Made in Birmingham' and Birmingham made.

Yet, perhaps, his final goal was elsewise. And did ever elude him. To bring back to Westley's the portrait of its founder that perversely still graces the premises of Holland & Holland in London. A sin of his father that he never did manage to reverse. It would be fitting if, posthumously, it did perhaps go 'home' to Westley's.

I did not really know Simon at all, we maintained a cordial relationship that the SCI Convention for many, many years. Conversations lasted for 10 to 15 minutes at the most before the hall opened up and it was always interesting to see if you were going to be drawn and quartered or engaged in a serious bit of history or even better, a gem of foresight concerning the trade.

Without doubt under Simons helm Westley is now and has for many years turned out what many considerer to be the best finished and assembled work to be had in the UK today taking a second seat to no one. What is it that say about opinions ? viewed from my side of the bench vise I find the lines and composition of at least Westley's Bolt rifles to be very well executed. I imagine that Simon had his fingers into every little seam and corner of the business and over the years. He and his crew have re-created the best of what we see coming out of the UK today. No small feat to remain consistent in a very competitive arena.

He may not have known everything, likely stepped on an awful lot of toes and ranted and raved often, but he did have vision and I'd like to believe he knew what he wanted to produce and went to great lengths to make it happen. Surrender to apathy was clearly not an option.

Let us hope he stirred enough fire in the hearts and hands of his team to allow them to carry on in his stead. I for one will miss being raked over the coals every January.

It will be interesting to see what happens. It deserves of better than the fate that befell Rigby betwixt Roberts's sale of it and Mauser's acquisition of the marque.

Amen to that

Interesting to a just plain joe like myself reading between the lines here. I am in awe of Westley Richards.