Renishaw, the global engineering firm headquartered in Gloucestershire, has announced that its co-founder, Sir David McMurtry has died, aged 84.

Sir David started the company in April 1973, originally to develop a precision measuring tool for use on the Concorde supersonic jet.

Today, the company employs 2,600 people in Gloucestershire, and a similar number in 36 countries round the world.

Renishaw’s high-precision measuring systems are used by companies that make aircraft and high tech bikes, medical and dental equipment and countless other products.

“It is with profound sadness that the company has learnt of the sudden death of its co-founder and non-executive director, Sir David McMurtry,” a Renishaw spokesperson said.

Sir David co-founded the firm with John Deer with its first commercial premises in Wotton-under-Edge, where the firm is still headquartered today.

They now have four other sites in Gloucestershire, at Charfield, Old Town (in Wotton), Stonehouse and Woodchester.

Until earlier this year, Sir David was executive chairman of the group. He stepped down in June but remained on the board, taking an active interest in the company’s innovation and technology.

Speaking on behalf of the board, Sir David Grant, interim non-executive chairman, said: “David was a uniquely talented engineer and his curiosity and drive helped to create a globally respected engineering company.

“His legacy will live on through the culture of innovation he helped to create in Renishaw.”

Sir David founded Renishaw to commercialise the 3D touch-trigger probe for co-ordinate measuring machines. He had invented the probe the previous year to solve measurement problems faced in the manufacture of the Olympus engines that powered the Concorde supersonic aircraft.

A brilliant engineer, he was employed at Rolls-Royce plc, Bristol, for 17 years, where became the company’s youngest ever Assistant Chief of Engine Design.

He was responsible for 47 patents at Rolls-Royce and went on to be named on more than 200 patents for Renishaw innovations.

As Renishaw grew worldwide, Sir David was given numerous foreign honours and accolades, including in Japan and the USA.

In 2008, the official magazine of the US Society of Manufacturing Engineers honoured him as a ‘Master of Manufacturing’, the first time that this recognition had been given to a non-US citizen.

But whilst he was frequently honoured in later life, he was a shy man who avoided publicity and was said to be happier in the company of young engineers at the company he helped build.

Today, Renishaw’s board paid tribute to him in a statement.

The company said: “Sir David will be greatly missed by so many, including the generations of Renishaw engineers who he inspired and mentored. The manufacturing industry has lost a great innovator and many at Renishaw have lost a father figure and a friend.”