Cecil Duckworth

The self-made multi-millionaire's business life has been driven by a desire to succeed, a knock of finding the silver lining to any dark clouds and sheer hard work.

Cecil Duckworth - self-made millionaire

He started with no qualifications and battled against companies already established in his chosen marketplace, which was making boilers for central heating systems.

Five years of night school and day release got his Nigher national Diploma in mechanical engineering and, during National Service in the Royal Air Force, he studied for his Chartered Institute of Engineers.

Determined to start his own company, he had two ideas.

His first was a self-service petrol pump, but in the early 60s petrol stations wouldn't wear it.

''You're ten years ahead of your time,'' he was told. ''Go away and come back later.''

Cecil couldn't wait and so went ahead with his alternative project, an oil-fired boiler for central heating systems.

Correctly, he had anticipated that central heating, then still something of a novelty, would catch on.

Tests on his first model ended with an explosion and the arrival of the fire brigade!

Undeterred, he pressed on and was soon in business. When his company, Worcester Group was taken over by Bosch in 1992, it was valued at £72m, and according to some financial analysts, was cheap at the price. Cecil stayed on and three years later, became president of the board of the Bosch Heating Division, the first non-German to head an operating unit within the Bosch Group, which has worldwide sales of billions of pounds. He retired early in 1997 when he switched his attention to his new passion -- the rugby club.