Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry, 1st Baron Perry
KBE
KBE may refer to:
* Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters
* Knowledge-based engineering
Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...
(18 March 1878 – 17 June 1956) was an English motor vehicle manufacturer who served as chairman of
Ford Motor Company Limited in Britain for 20 years from its incorporation in 1928, completing almost a lifetime's work with
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...
. He also led the establishment of
Slough Estates
SEGRO plc (formerly known as Slough Estates Group) is a British property investment and development company based in London, England. It develops and invests in property located in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe focusing on edge of to ...
.
Background and education
Percival Perry was born in
Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
, the third son of Alfred Thomas Perry and Elizabeth (née Wheeler). He won a scholarship to
King Edward VI's Grammar School, Birmingham which he attended 1889–1894 then joined a solicitor's office but was unable to continue law studies from lack of funds.
[Richard Davenport-Hines, 'Perry, Percival Lee Dewhurst, Baron Perry (1878–1956)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004]
Career
At 17 Perry moved to London to work in the motor industry for
H J Lawson. He prepared a technical report on the earliest
Ford Model A cars imported to Britain. In 1904, Aubrey Blakiston established
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
's first British agency, the Central Motor Company, in
Long Acre
Long Acre is a street in the City of Westminster in central London. It runs from St Martin's Lane, at its western end, to Drury Lane in the east. The street was completed in the early 17th century and was once known for its Coach_(carriage), co ...
, London. Perry joined the company as a minority shareholder in 1905, and after Blakiston's departure became managing director in 1906. Cash flow was an issue despite loans from Perry's father-in-law, since
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...
insisted on payment up-front when cars for export were loaded at New York harbour.
Perry travelled to Detroit to seek improved credit terms or investment in the company from
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...
. Although the mission was unsuccessful, good personal relationships were established with Henry Ford. Perry came up with the idea of Ford manufacturing cars outside North America to be sold across the British Empire and Europe.
[
]
Ford
By 1908, the Central Motor Company was in trouble, despite bringing in new partners and finance. Perry left the company, and briefly imported and sold REO cars. When Ford decided to pursue direct investment in Britain, he contacted Perry who in 1909 was appointed manager of a Ford branch company for Britain. Perry set up a network of exclusively Ford dealers, raced the company's cars and published comic verse promoting cars to the public.[
]
Manufacture in Britain
In 1911 as head of the new Ford Motor Company (England) Limited he opened Ford's first factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...
outside North America in Trafford Park
Trafford Park is an area of the metropolitan borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, opposite Salford Quays on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Manchester city centre and north of Stretford. Until the la ...
, Manchester. This operation, from 1914, included Britain's first mechanised chassis assembly system.[
]
Unions
Perry broke trade unionism imposing job mobility, time wages and direct managerial control over production. He also followed Henry Ford's policy of paying his workers more than usual in their sector.[
The 1915 McKenna import duties enforced manufacture in Britain.][ In 1916 Perry formed Automobiles Ford in Paris to take over Ford operations in France.
]
1914–18 war
Henry Ford's pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...
leanings did not make him or his company popular in wartime Britain. Perry, by contrast, devoted his time and effort to making Ford of Britain appear patriotic and loyal. From 1916 to 1919, this experience led to his strong objection to state controls over manufacturing, Perry served without remuneration as:
* deputy controller of food production (Board of Agriculture and Fisheries) 1916
* director agricultural machinery department (Ministry of Munitions) 1917–18
* deputy controller mechanical warfare department (Ministry of Munitions) 1918–19
* director of traction mechanical warfare department (Ministry of Munitions) 1918–19
For this unpaid work he was appointed CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
in 1917 and knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity.
The concept of a knighthood ...
in 1918.[
After the armistice Perry was determined to run all European operations himself.][ ]
Ford had supplied many vehicles to the war effort. Although successful in protecting Ford's UK position, Perry's active involvement in wartime British government did not play well with Ford's head office in Detroit. Their differences could not be reconciled and, in 1919, he was sacked.
Ford's British operations were then run by managers sent from Detroit.
Slough Trading Estate Limited
Free from involvement with Ford, Perry was available to lead the consortium which in 1920 purchased the Slough
Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...
military motor transport depot and converted it into a model manufacturing estate based on Trafford Park, Slough Trading Estate
The Slough Trading Estate, founded in Slough in Buckinghamshire in 1920, was an early business park in Britain. According to the estate's owners and operators, Segro, Slough Trading Estate consists of of commercial property in Slough and provi ...
. In 1922 – 1923, he persuaded André Citroen to begin building cars on the Slough Trading Estate. In 1922 he resigned as chairman and managing director though he retained his directorship and retired to live mostly on Herm in the Channel Islands where he wrote, with his wife ''The Island of Enchantment'' published in 1926.[
]
Henry Ford reviews his decision
In the meantime, Ford's Detroit based management of Ford of Britain had not been successful.
In 1928, Henry Ford asked Perry to become chairman, find directors and float a new British public listed company, Ford Motor Company Limited, 60% owned by Dearborn, taking over Ford operations throughout Europe and the Middle East and developing the new plants at Dagenham
Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross.
It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fo ...
—the largest automobile factory outside USA—and Cork in the Irish Free State.
Perry formulated Ford's new European strategy. Though frustrated at times by deteriorating economic and political conditions he maintained English control over all European operations superintending factories and assembly plants in Ireland, Denmark, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
In January 1932 Ford Dagenham began production of Ford Model Y
The Ford Model Y is an automobile that was produced by Ford Britain, Ford SAF and Ford Germany from 1932 to 1937. It was the first Ford automobile specifically designed for markets outside the United States, replacing the Model A in Europe.
Pro ...
the first Ford specifically designed for markets outside North America.
Other involvements
In addition to Slough Trading Perry held directorships with National Provincial Bank, The London Assurance and Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company Limited and was briefly an advisor to the Minister of Food in 1939–40.
During the depression he arranged Fordson Farms at Boreham in Essex, an experiment in co-operative farming.
Many were surprised at his liking for poetry literature and the arts.[The Times, Tuesday, 19 June 1956; pg. 13; Issue 53561 Obituary: Lord Perry. The Ford Interests In Europe] He enjoyed writing and published ''New Songs'' in 1925 and ''The International Balance of Trade'' in 1932 also pamphlets advocating '"free enterprise". He led a body formed in 1943 to promote his beliefs called Aims of Industry
AIMS or Aims may refer to:
Education
* Acharya Institute of Management and Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
* Adventist International Mission School, Muak Lek, Thailand
* African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cape Town, South Af ...
and was its first president.
Retirement
Henry Ford passed management to his grandson in 1945 and died in 1947. In April 1948 Perry retired,[ aged 70, and Dearborn purchased the European operations from the British company less than two years later.
]
Honours and arms
In February 1938 Sir Percival Perry was raised to the peerage as Baron Perry, of Stock Harvard in the County of Essex.
Personal life
Percival Perry married Catherine, daughter of John Meals, postmaster, of Hull
Hull may refer to:
Structures
* The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis
* Fuselage, of an aircraft
* Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds
* Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft
* Submarine hull
Ma ...
, in 1902. They had no children.[ From 1923 to 1939, Perry was tenant of ]Herm
Herm (Guernésiais: , ultimately from Old Norse 'arm', due to the shape of the island, or Old French 'hermit') is one of the -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, ...
. He died in June 1956 at New Providence Island in the Bahamas, aged 78. Lady Perry died six months later.[ The barony became extinct on his death.
]
References
*
Ford – History of Ford in Britain Accessed 18 March 2007
media.ford.com – FORD IN EUROPE: HISTORICAL TIME LINE Accessed 18 March 2007
External links
*
This is Guernsey – Herm Accessed 18 March 2007
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Percival
1878 births
1956 deaths
Tenants of Herm
British automotive pioneers
Businesspeople from Bristol
People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Barons created by George VI