Rowland Smith (industrialist)

Sir Alexander Rowland Smith was a British automotive industrialist and Ford executive, who was responsible for the Ford plant in Manchester making around 34,000 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines during World War II; for this feat he was knighted in June 1944.

Early life

Smith was born in Gillingham, Kent to Martha Blaker Challis and Alexander James Frederick Smith. His parents were married at South Ockendon Chapel on 29 January 1887.

Career

Ford

Smith was mostly responsible for the Merlin engine being built by Ford during the war ; he was knighted for this work in the 1944 Birthday Honours.
He wanted women workers to build the Merlin engines, as he believed that engine assembly was work that women were suited for, but the Ministry of Aviation at first profoundly disagreed, but it worked well. He worked with Patrick Hennessy and Stanford Cooper, who were also knighted. Around 400 Merlin engines, per week, were being made.
The £6.6m factory at Urmston began construction in February 1940, and was finished by June 1940. There were 17,300 workers, with around 7,000 women.
Smith became managing director of Ford of Britain in 1941. He became chairman in 1950, leaving in 1956.

Personal life

Smith lived at 'Oldbury Place' in Ightham, Kent.
Smith married Janet Lucretia Baker in 1913.
Smith's daughter, Daphne Mary Smith, married at St Clement Danes church to Donald Maclean, of Bournemouth; they married on 28 May 1937. His daughter remarried around 1943. He had a son, Alexander Penrhyn Rowland Smith, who lived at Hatherleigh.
Rowland Smith died aged 100 in Uckfield, East Sussex.