ernest william hancock

Ernest William (Bill) Hancock

BORN IN September 1895 in the Borough 01 Lambeth, London, the youngest of nine children. Educated at Si. (Nave’s & St. Saviour’s Grammar School and The Grocers School London, leaving at the early age of 15 years to become apprenticed at Vauxhall Motors until 1915. when he joined the Royal Naval Air Service. returning to Vauxhall Mown in 1919. His Commanding Officer,No. 6 Wing, Otranto, Italy said of him in October 1918: “His character and principles are of the highest standard and his absence from this Station will be greatly felt when he leaves it to qualify for His Majesty’s Commission in the Royal Air Force.” Hc made progress from the drawing board in 1919 to Planning Department Manager at Vauxhall, leavnig in 1928 to Min The Daimler Motor Co. as Works Manager also in charge of BSA Small Heath in Birmingham. He left Daimler and joined the Humber Co. in 1935 as Works Manager until 1942, when he Mined Rube, Owen as General Works Manager at their main Darlaston factories. He was invited back to Humber in 1948 by the Routes brothers to take over all their Coventry factories as Director and General Manager where he remained until his retirement in 1961. All his industrial life he has been associated with the Motor Industry and aircraft engine manufacture, and he was contemporary with many of the pioneers of the Motor Car Industry, many of whom have now passed on. He was awarded the MBE for his action in the first “Blitz” on Coventry and Humber on 3rd January 1941, where he was “Person-in-Charge” for The Ministry of Aircraft Production for Humber Works living in a fiat in the works, his family had evacuated to Wales. In 1953 he was awarded the OBE for his contribution to Industry in Coventry. He has presented many Technical Papers to Technical Institutions and Universities binh in UK and in the USA and has travelled extensively on business, as far as Moscow. In 1956 he was National President of the

Institution of Production Engineers and in 1935/36 was Chairman of Council of that same Institution, from 1961 to 1965 he was National President of The Institute of Sheet Metal Engineering and has been associated with many other interests such as Voluntary Fire Brigades, St. John’s Ambulance, Red Cross, Disablement Advisory Committee, Human Sciences Committee, Governor Lanchester College, Sports Associations and served on many Government Committees, etc. In his retirement, he continues his interest in Industry in an advisory capacity and spends much time in writing, from technical matters to stories for his grandsons. He continues it take an interest in the human side of industry. He and his wife live in Coventry near The Cotswold country, and

he says of his wife that he would never wish to turn the clock back any earlier than when he first met her 47 years ago, as she has given him cnore happiness than he deserves. Apart from understanding his hectic business life, she giNe him two wonderful sons, who in turn married two lovely girls, who in turn gave them five marvellous grandsons.

Bill Hancock inns Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Serving Brother of the Order of Saint John, Fellow of the Institution d Mechanical Engineers, Hon. Fellow of she Institution of Production Engineers, Me…. The American Society of Tool & Manufactunnli Engineers, Fellow cif The Institute of Wcir” Managers, and Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts.