William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes
British automobile pioneer (1894-1964)
William Edward Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes GBE (17 August 1894–12 December 1964) was a Coventry motor manufacturer. He opened his first car sales agency in 1913, leading to the global Rootes Group. During the Second World War he supervised the volume manufacture of aircraft and engines, as well as the supply of military motor vehicles and armoured fighting vehicles. He was knighted in 1942 for these services and for organising the reconstruction of bomb-damaged Coventry after its saturation bombing by the Luftwaffe on 14–15 November 1940. In the 1950s, he became a leader of Britain's export drive, and chaired a committee to found the University of Warwick with a vision of academic links with industry.
Quotes edit
- No other man-made device since the shields and lances of the ancient knights fulfills a man's ego like an automobile.
- Quoted on the BBC-TV show "Who Said That?," January 14, 1958
