Sydney S. Guy
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an appreciation
SYDNEY S. GUY who died last week at the age of 86 was one of the great pioneers of the commercial vehicle industry. He founded Guy Motors Ltd in 1913 at the age of 29 and retired in 1957. Having served his apprenticeship with Bellis and Morcom, the steam engineering company. he joined the General Electric Co and in 1908 at the age of 24 he was appointed works manager of the Sunbeam Motor Co, He was later chairman of the Sunbeam Trolleybus Co Ltd and of Guy Motors Africa (Ptyl Ltd.
An MIMechE, AMIEE and MSAE. he was a council member of the SMMT for 33 years and vice-president in 1928/1929. He pioneered the first low-loading drop-frame bus chassis to be developed in the UK.
Early achievements of Sydney Guy included the development of a lightweight form of pressed-steel frame, which in 1914 was incorporated in a 30cwt lorry of advanced design in place of a rolled-steel channel frame. The many notable vehicles that were also produced by the company in his time included a modified Guy Arab double-decker chassis that was supplied to Johannesburg Municipality in 1957 and, powered by a Rolls-Royce diesel, was 'designed to carry 105 passengers. A sixwheeled articulated truck and a batteryelectric refuse collector were produced in the early 1920s and a vehicle that operated on producer gas in 1927. A rear-engined fourwheel-drive armoured car having all-welded bullet-proof armour plate was one of the wide range of military vehicles evolved for the fighting forces in the Second World War.