William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes
William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes was born on August 17, 1894. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes
William Edward Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes GBE (17 August 1894 – 12 December 1964) (Billy Rootes; The Lord Rootes) was a British motor manufacturer. He opened his first car sales agency in 1913, leading to the global Rootes Group. During the Second World War he supervised the volume manufacture of aircraft and engines, as well as the supply of military motor vehicles and armoured fighting vehicles. He was knighted in 1942 for these services and for organising the reconstruction of bomb-damaged Coventry after its saturation bombing by the Luftwaffe on 14–15 November 1940. In the 1950s, he became a leader of Britain's export drive, and chaired a committee to found the University of Warwick with a vision of academic links with industry.