Fulmer Research Institute was founded in 1945 by Col W C (Dev) Devereux and incorporated in 1946. He had been a pioneer in the use of light metal alloys in aero engines and, in the Second World War, he had an important role in the UK Ministry of Aircraft Production, organizing the assembly in Britain of American aircraft and reorganizing the repair of aircraft and aero-engines.
After the war, in 1945, he set up a company called Almin Ltd (Associated Light Metal Industries) which brought together a group of companies mostly concerned with the production and processing of aluminium and magnesium alloys.  He wanted Almin to have research facilities but he recognised that Almin's R&D needs alone were not sufficient to justify the investment in staff and capital equipment required for properly equipped laboratories.  His answer was to establish a contract research organization
along the lines of Battelle Memorial Institute and The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in the USA.
Thus he founded Fulmer Research Institute as one of the first contract research companies in Britain.  Initially it was in temporary accommodation but he soon found a permanent base by purchasing a large Edwardian country house with ten acres of grounds, in the Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Poges.  The name Fulmer was the name of the local telephone exchange and that of a nearby village.