George Hyde (gun designer)

For other people named George Hyde, see George Hyde (disambiguation).
George J. Hyde
Born(1888-01-04)January 4, 1888
Opfingen, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire
DiedDecember 2, 1963(1963-12-02) (aged 75)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
OccupationsMachinist, gunsmith and gun designer
Known forSubmachine gun and pistol designs

George J. Hyde Sr. (born Georg Heide; January 4, 1888 – December 2, 1963) was a German-born American machinist, gunsmith and gun designer best known for designing the M3 submachine gun, better known as the "Grease Gun", as well as the FP-45 Liberator pistol.

Born in Opfingen, a village now part of Freiburg, Germany, Hyde worked as a machinist and designed weapons for the German Empire during World War I. He immigrated to the United States in 1926, with his family following the next year. Before 1935 George J. Hyde was a machinist and shop foreman at Griffin & Howe. He quit Griffin & Howe and went on to become the co-owner of Leonard & Hyde in New York. He partnered with Samuel A. "Harry" Leonard, an expert shotgun and rifle stock maker, who had trained at James Purdey & Sons of London. Hyde also did contract gunsmithing work for Roberts and Kimball in Woburn, Massachusetts. (The latter was an early semi-custom maker of rifles chambered in .257 Roberts.)

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