page_title: Leonard Lord
section_title: Automotive career
hierarchical_section_title: Leonard Lord / Automotive career
caption_attribution_description: English: Austin A40 Sports / Roadster at Knebworth Classic Car Show
context_page_description: Leonard Percy Lord, 1st Baron Lambury KBE was a captain of the British motor industry.
context_section_description: He moved to Vickers, before joining Coventry Ordnance Works, a munitions factory in Coventry, for the duration of World War One. Lord worked for a number of engineering firms after the war. After 1918 Lord worked in a manufacturing plant for Daimler engines. In 1923 he moved to Morris Motors Limited where he was involved in rationalising all stages of the production process. In 1927 Morris bought Wolseley Motors Limited, and Lord was transferred there in order to modernise their production equipment. In 1932 Lord was promoted to General Manager at Morris, working from the Cowley factory. He was so effective that in 1933 Morris made him Managing Director of Morris Motors itself. By 1934 Morris was a multi-millionaire bearing the title Lord Nuffield in recognition of his generous charitable donations and his business empire had become the Nuffield Organisation. In August 1936 Leonard resigned. In 1937 Nuffield appointed his now unemployed friend as manager of the Nuffield Trust for Special Areas with £2 million for distribution to development schemes benefitting areas in economic distress. But Lord was looking for a way back into the industry and in 1938 after many years of conflict with William Morris, Lord left to join Morris's chief competitor, the Austin Motor Company.
  At that time, Herbert Austin was looking for somebody to direct his company, his only son having been killed during the war. Ultimately, Lord was selected to manage the company. Lord Austin died in 1941 and Lord became the most powerful man in the company. With the advent of the Second World War, Austin converted from civil to military production, in particular ambulances and government vehicles. After the war, Lord became Chairman of Austin and the company resumed civil motor-vehicle production in 1946. He promoted his company and set up plants in Canada, Australia, Argentina, South Africa and Mexico. In 1954 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). Through further mergers and acquisitions, including the huge 1952 merger with his former employer the Nuffield Organisation, (with Lord's Austin very much the senior partner), Lord ultimately became president of the British Motor Corporation. Following its creation, Lord often joked that BMC stood for, "Bugger My Competitors". On 26 March 1962 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Lambury, of Northfield in the County of Warwick.
caption: Austin A40 Sports, ca 1951, designed by Eric Neale and manufactured by Austin Motor Company in conjunction with Jensen Motors. The car originated when Leonard Lord, upon seeing the Jensen Interceptor, requested that Jensen develop a body that could use the A40 mechanicals.
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