OBITUARY
Page 33
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WE REGRET to record the death of Lord Lambury of Northfield.
Lord Lambury, 71, president of the British Motor Corporation, was far better known as Sir Leonard Lord, KBE; and to most of the world-wide motor industry he was simply Len Lord the Coventry-born engineer who rose from the shop floor to help build Britain's biggest motor manufacturing business and then run it.
First he was chairman and managing director and then executive chairman—for the nine years from 1952 until he handed over to G. W. (now Sir George) Harriman—and became the corporation's first vice-president.
His last retirement was Leonard Lord's second (although he remained active, and was still a board member). His first was in 1936 at the age of 40. By then he had worked his way through an engineering apprenticeship, served as a draughtsman with several concerns (including Daimler) andafter joining the Hotchkiss Co. in Coventry in 1922—had been singled out by W. R. Morris (the late Lord Nuffield) to
reorganize Wolseley Motors, which he did with typical zeal and competence.
He had also had four years as managing director of Morris Motors Ltd., when he retired in 1936 and travelled abroad.
But he could not stay away from the Midlands. After a brief spell managing Lord Nuffield's trust fund for the Special Areas he accepted Herbert Austin's invitation to become works director of Austin Motor Co. at Longbridge. Through successively senior appointments he became chairman and managing director in 1945 (Lord Austin had died in 1941). He succeeded Lord Nuffield as BMC's chairman and managing director in 1951.
He was awarded a barony in 1962 for his life-long services to the motor industry.
The Editor of COMMERCIAL MOTOR writes: "Len Lord was many things—industrialist, mathematician, farmer, draughtsman, shrewd administrator—but he was at heart a production engineer, and an immensely able one at that.
He showed his talents for large-scale organiza don when he was given control of Wolseley in 1927 and it was this ability, with his engineering skill and his wide view of events, that enabled him to weld the diverse talents and loyalties of concerns such as Austin, Morris, MorrisCommercial, MG, Riley and Wolseley into a single corporation.
It was typical of his shrewdness in weighing people up that he gave Alec Issigonis his head as a talented designer and then, confronted with the prototype Mini, put on his production engineer's "hat" and said: "I want it in production in 12 months".
Issigonis, startled, pointed out how much this might cost. Retorted Sir Leonard: "I'll sign the cheques; you get on with getting the thing to work!"
Tough, capable, sometimes blunt, Leonard Lord also had a wry humour and a sometimes surprising humility. He was certainly one of the great engineer-administrators of the motor industry.