William (Billy), the first Lord Rootes with Ramsbury Manor beyond.
FOREWORD Marian Rootes was the widow of Geoffrey Rootes, the eldest son of William Edward (Billy) Rootes who founded Rootes Motors. This sale brings together some of the finest works of art collected by two generations of the Rootes family during the years when the Rootes motoring empire was at its peak. The Rootes story starts with Billy Rootes's father, William, who ran a bicycle shop in Hawkhurst, Kent and began selling cars in 1895. Billy shared his father's mechanical interests and went to work for the Singer Motor Company as a penny an hour apprentice at the tender age of 15. He soon progressed to selling Singer cars and the dynamism that marked him as a future entrepreneur became apparent at this time. After serving in the naval air service in the First World War, he was demobbed and founded Rootes Motors with his brother Reggie. The brothers set about establishing a network of car showrooms throughout the country selling British car marques. Such was their success that by 1926 they had opened Devonshire House, the palatial flagship Rootes showroom and headquarters that dominated the north side of Piccadilly at Green Park. The next step was to take over many of the small car manufacturers whose cars they were selling and rationalise their production. Thus Humber, Hillman, Sunbeam and Singer came under the Rootes Group banner.
In January 1936 Billy took his son Geoffrey - who had just left Harrow school - on a six-month world tour, looking for opportunities to expand the Rootes Group's international motoring empire which by now stretched from America to Australia and the Far East. It was during this trip that Billy received a cable from the government inviting him to become chairman of the committee tasked with setting up shadow factories to manufacture aircraft for the Royal Air Force in preparation for the war. It was Billy Rootes's contribution to the war effort that led to his knighthood. In November 1940, following the Coventry blitz, Winston Churchill asked him to get Coventry's industry back into production without delay. Billy rose to the occasion. On the morning after the blitz, he stood on an upturned box outside his bombed factories, encouraging his workforce to clear up the mess and promising there would continue to be work for all. Billy was knighted in 1942 for his achievements and the outstanding contribution made to the war effort by the Rootes Group in producing record numbers of aircraft, vehicles and supplies for the British forces. His brother Reggie was also knighted in 1945.