Town council unveil plaque to commemorate Jaguar’s Chief Engineer
Royal Leamington Spa Town Council commemorated Jaguar’s Chief Engineer, William Munger Heynes CBE, with the unveiling of a plaque to be displayed on the house where he was born.
The unveiling took place on Wednesday 28th September 2022 and was attended by dignitaries from across the Jaguar community including Peter Purdom, JEC Chairman and Matthew Davis from the JDHT. The plaque itself was unveiled by William Heynes’ son, Jonathan Heynes.
The honour coincides with the 100th year of the start of Sir William Lyons Swallow Sidecars in 1922, the company that created the origins of Jaguar.
The Blue Plaque honour has been designed to ensure that passers-by are able to read the plaque from the pavement and is part of a scheme that marks out the birthplace of local people who contributed incredible achievements to their field.
William Heynes was born on New Year’s Eve in 1903 in a modest Victorian terraced house at 11 Percy Terrace, Leamington Spa. His father was a cabinet maker with a workshop and shop window in nearby Regent Street.
He was educated at Warwick School from 1914-1921, where his science master, noting his skills and attention to detail in practical work, coupled with his all-round ability, encouraged him to think of a career in medicine.
For the son of a cabinet maker, with five brothers to consider, this was an impossible dream.
Instead, when he left school, he started as an apprentice draughtsman at the Humber Car Company in Coventry. He worked in the design department, learning every aspect of the motor business from design to completed motor car. During his early years with Humber he worked on several Humber designs, including larger cars, marketed at competitive prices in a growing market. By 1930, he was head of the technical department and responsible for preparing Humber to produce significant models such as the significant Snipe 80 and Pullman 16/60.
When the Rootes brothers bought Humber, several senior staff left to join The Standard Motor Company; William Heynes meanwhile, worked on Rootes models and helped to develop an independent front suspension for the Hillman Minx. (He also contributed to a four – speed gearbox). As well as his work on Humber models, Heynes was appointed to head the Hillman design office and occupied his time with stress calculations for the chassis frame. He found the work interesting but routine and felt held back by the Rootes board’s reluctance to change their existing engineering techniques.
In April 1935, William Heynes joined SS Cars Ltd as Chief Engineer, at the invitation of William Lyons himself. Discovering that SS Cars did not have a drawing office, and that there was only one draughtsman, he quickly established himself a dedicated engineering office and recruited additional staff. Initially, he and his small team worked on the chassis and as a result, produced a new chassis in less than six months. The chassis was designed for independent front suspension and a new 2.6 litre engine with overhead valves producing 103bhp. The new engine and new chassis fitted perfectly into the company’s first four door saloon, a powerful, well-equipped sedan which became the cornerstone of the company’s development for many decades. Later, Heynes was involved with increasing the production of Standard Motor Company engines, which were then used in SS vehicles.
After the Second World War, SS Cars was renamed Jaguar and William Heynes persuaded William Lyons that the company should create its own line of engines. The result was the legendary XK engine. This power unit became the mainstay of Jaguar for forty years and was used extensively for military purposes also.
Heynes worked on preparations to produce many vehicles, including the Jaguar Mk V, the C-type racing car and D-type, Mk VII, E-type, the XJ13 and Mk X. With another exceptional engineer, Claude Bailey, he continued to modify and develop engines, chassis, and suspension throughout his working life.
Perhaps William Heynes’ greatest innovation came about in 1952 as a result of collaboration with Dunlop, - the development of the disc brake, for use on normal road-going cars, after their success in racing with the Jaguar C-type and later D-type at Le Mans. Disc brakes were subsequently used extensively in the automotive world, potentially saving millions of lives.
Appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his achievements in July 1969, William Heynes retired as Vice – Chairman and Technical Director of Jaguar Cars later that year. He remained at his farm just outside Stratford upon Avon until his death in 1989 but always kept in touch with his former colleagues.
