William Lyons
Sir William Lyons, known as "Mr. Jaguar", was with fellow motorcycle enthusiast William Walmsley, the co-founder in 1922 of the Swallow Sidecar Company, which became Jaguar Cars Limited after the Second World War.
Early life and career
Lyons was born in Blackpool, son of Irish immigrant William Lyons, who owned a musical instrument shop, and his wife Minnie Barcroft, the daughter of a mill owner. After attending Arnold School, Lyons obtained an engineering apprenticeship at Crossley Motors in Manchester, where he also studied at the technical school. He left Crossley in 1919 to work as a salesman at the Sunbeam dealers Brown and Mallalieu in Blackpool.Motorcycles
In 1921, Lyons met William Walmsley who was converting army-surplus motorcycles for civilian use and making sidecars. Lyons admired the sidecars and bought one. Lyons and Walmsley obtained from their fathers a substantial £500 bank guarantee to go into business. Their plans were delayed as Lyons was under the legal age, but on his 21st birthday he formed a partnership with Walmsley.Image:1922 Blackpool Lyons and Walmsley.jpg|thumb|left|Walmsley and Lyons with the Model no. 1 Swallow sidecar on King Edward avenue in Blackpool, where they grewp up and engineering facilities were initially. The motorcycle is a Brough Superior SS80.
It was called Swallow Sidecars and had a staff of "three men and a boy". The company manufactured stylish sidecars, but after 1927 made increasing numbers of low cost coach-built cars, especially the Austin Seven Swallow which the Blackpool factory produced at the rate of 12 per week. Following several moves to larger premises in Blackpool, in 1928 Lyons moved the company to Coventry. His family home was Woodside, Gibbet Hill, on the fringe of the city. Production increased to 50 cars each week. In 1931, they began selling the SS1, and in 1933 the company name was changed to SS Cars Ltd. The following year, William Walmsley left the company.
Jaguar
The first "Jaguar" model was offered in 1935, and after World War II, Lyons changed the company name to Jaguar to avoid the unfortunate connotations with the Nazi SS "Schutzstaffel". Armstrong Siddeley allowed Lyons to use the Jaguar name from their successful aircraft engine range, such was the camaraderie of the car industry at the time.During the War vehicle production was switched to aircraft manufacture and repair, but engineering development did continue. Some secretive military projects were undertaken but most importantly for the future of the company, Lyons and his engineering team headed by William Heynes chief engineer worked on a new engine which was to power his vision of a mass-produced sporting saloon car. The XK engine was completed in 1948 and launched in a one-off concept sports car to help draw attention to it. This succeeded far better than was envisaged and both became an overnight sensation, globally. The XK engine went on to power all Jaguars until the introduction of the series 3 E Type introduced the Jaguar V12 engine in 1971, while the XJ6 continued in production until 1992 with the 4.2 litre version of the XK engine. The sports car, XK120, went into full production too and led to a string of attention-grabbing sports cars which led to international sporting success and helped put the name of Jaguar Cars and Coventry on the world map. But Lyons main focus was on the saloon car which he continued to develop until his last and proudest achievement, the XJ6 of 1968.
During his time as managing director of Jaguar, Lyons could be best described as 'autocratic' and kept a tight rein on the company. It is said that board meetings were rare until the 1960s. He was responsible for the styling of every new model introduced. This was remarkable, as Sir William was not a trained engineer, and designed primarily using full scale 3-D mockups, which were continually adjusted by craftsmen working under his instructions. Undoubtedly one of his other great skills was to pick the highly accomplished team that was to remain loyal to him for so long. William Heynes, Claude Baily, Walter Hassan, Tom Jones, and many others all contributed to create a strong engineering team. Although he had no direct involvement with its design, allegedly Lyons was shown the finished final prototype of the XJ40 shortly before his death in 1985 and was said to be "approving" of what was the replacement for the first generation XJ6.
Lyons gave his permission, in 1956, for the formation of The Jaguar Drivers' Club, an owners club for the cars his company produced. The Jaguar Drivers' Club is the only owners club to ever be officially sanctioned by Lyons and the company itself and is still in existence today serving many thousands of members.