Alex Moulton

Moulton was educated at Marlborough College and the University of Cambridge[1] where he was an undergraduate student at King's College, Cambridge.[9] He was the great-grandson of the rubber pioneer Stephen Moulton, the founder of the family business George Spencer Moulton & Co. Ltd., in which he worked after World War II, specialising in rubber suspension systems for vehicles. His father, John Coney Moulton, was a naturalist working in the Far East.

During the war he worked on engine design at the Bristol Aeroplane Company.[1] In the late 1950s, after the acquisition of the family business by the Avon Rubber Company, Moulton started up a new company, Moulton Developments Limited, to design the suspension system for British Motor Corporation's new small car, the Mini, that was being designed by his friend Alec Issigonis.[10] The combination of conical rubber springs and small wheels was one of the many innovative developments that allowed Issigonis to achieve the Mini's small overall size. This was later refined into the hydrolastic and hydragas suspension systems used on later British Leyland cars such as the Austin Maxi, Austin Allegro, Princess and Rover Metro, and most recently on the MG F.[9]

Moulton also designed the Moulton Bicycle, again using rubber suspension and small wheels. Moulton Bicycle Company[11] is based in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England. The Austin Gipsy, was a Land Rover competitor with all-independent suspension using Moulton's 'Flexitor' suspension units.

Moulton lived at The Hall, Bradford-on-Avon and was a member of Brooks's club.[1] As of 2022 the Hall is run by a charitable trust.[2] Moulton died on 9 December 2012 at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. His funeral, which was attended by 'Moultoneers' from all over the world, took place at Holy Trinity Church, Bradford-on-Avon on 19 December, after which he was interred in the family grave at Christ Church, Bradford-on-Avon in the same town beside his great-grandfather, Stephen Moulton, who founded the Moulton dynasty in the Wiltshire town in 1848.