I initially thought of Tommy Sopwith, but it isn't, if I'd just gone a couple of pages further in the history of Hawkers I was checking I'd have seen that it was Camm I was thinking of. Given he was building full-sized gliders at 19/20 I think we have to say his start with models completely counts.

I'm astonished to realise looking at Wiki that Sopwith's working life came within 5 years of overlapping with mine - he was still a consultant to BAe until 1980, I started with GEC-Marconi in '85. I don't imagine he was doing much at 92, but my flabber is gasted.

Completely off-topic, but did you notice in today's Guardian: The King’s Daughter: Pierce Brosnan’s cursed mermaid stabbing movie finally gets released https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/21/the-kings-daughter-pierce-brosnan-mermaid
Which seems like the kind of thing to interest/amuse you.