Maurice Fernand Cary Wilks (19 August 19048 September 1963) was a British automotive and aeronautical engineer, and by the time of his death in 1963, was the chairman of the

Rover Company The Rover Company Limited was a British car manufacturing company that operated from its base in Solihull in Warwickshire. Its lasting reputation for quality and performance was such that its first postwar model reviewed by ''Road & Track'' in ...

, a British car manufacturer. He was the founder of the Land Rover marque and responsible for the inspiration and concept work that led to the development of the first Land Rover off-road utility vehicle.

Early life

Wilks was born on 19 August 1904 on

Hayling Island Hayling Island is an island off the south coast of England, in the borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, east of Portsmouth. History An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island was later developed into a Roman temple in the 1s ...

, Hampshire, England, the youngest of five sons and one daughter of Thomas Wilks (born Balham), a director of Leather Co and his wife Jane Eliza (born St. Sepulchre, London), a

Suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to member ...

. One of his brothers was Spencer Wilks who became managing director, chairman and president of the Rover Car Company.''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' - Saturday, 10 June 1967. He was educated at

Malvern College Malvern College is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent coeducational day and boarding school in Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is a public school (United Kingdom), public school in the British sen ...

.Graces Guide to British Industrial History. Profile of Spencer Wilks
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Career

Maurice Wilks worked from 1922 to 1926 for the Hillman Motor Car Company in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

. In 1926 he went to work for

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

in the United States but after two years in the U.S., returned to England and Hillman. Rover Jet1 a

Wilks remained at Hillman as a planning engineer until 1930, when he moved to the

as chief engineer following his much older brother, Spencer. Spencer Wilks had been brought in from Hillman in September 1929 by Rover's Frank Searle made general manager and given a seat on Rover's board the following year. Spencer would be appointed managing director of Rover from 1932Rover appoint president. ''The Times'' Saturday, 10 June 1967; p. 18; Issue 56964 In 1930 Spencer and Maurice Wilks on Spencer's appointment to the board made the important decision to make only high quality cars. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Wilks led Rover's team developing

Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 fo ...

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...

aircraft engines. Experiencing difficulties with Whittle's team Rover passed the project to Rolls-Royce in 1943. After the war, Wilks continued working with gas turbine engines, leading to Rover unveiling the first gas turbine powered car in 1949. Shortly after the war, whilst at his farm in Anglesey, Wilks, who used an army surplus

Willys Jeep The Willys MB and the Ford GPW, both formally called the U.S. Army Truck, -ton, 4×4, Command Reconnaissance, commonly known as the Willys Jeep, Jeep, or jeep, and sometimes referred to by its supply catalogue designation G503,According to i ...

for farm work, and his brother Spencer who was visiting him, were inspired to develop and produce a utility four-wheel-drive vehicle for farmers, and the name ''Land Rover'' was coined for it. By the summer of 1947 Rover had built a prototype ''Land Rover'' vehicle based on a Jeep chassis. In September 1947, the Rover company authorised the production of 50 pre-production models for evaluation purposes. The ''Land Rover'' was launched to the world at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show. Maurice Wilks was a leading light in the establishment and development of the proving ground facilities of the

Motor Industry Research Association An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

. Maurice Wilks remained chief engineer until appointed technical director in 1946. He was appointed joint managing director with brother Spencer Wilks in August 1956 and succeeded his brother as managing director in November 1960. In January 1962 preferring policy to day-to-day management he was appointed chairman of the Rover Company in succession to his older brother Spencer Wilks. The managing director appointment was given to W F F Martin-Hurst.

Death

Wilks died at his farm near Newborough, Anglesey, on 8 September 1963. He was 59. His obituary in The Times described him as shunning publicity but added that he was farsighted and regarded as one of the industry's outstanding engineers with a brilliant knowledge of engineering detail. He was survived by his wife and three children. He married Barbara Martin-Hurst in 1937.Marriages. ''The Times'', Monday, 31 May 1937; p. 1; Issue 47698

Wilks family

From the early 1930s, until merged with British Leyland, Rover had much of the nature of a family business. * Maurice Wilks's elder brother, Spencer Bernau Wilks (1891—1971), was general manager from September 1929 then managing director of Rover from 1932 until 1957 when he was appointed chairman of the board of directors. Spencer was hired by Rover managing director, Frank Searle, from his position of joint (with John Black) managing director of Hillman following the purchase of Hillman by the Rootes brothers. Spencer brought Maurice from Hillman to Rover the following year to be Rover's chief engineer. : Aged 70 Spencer retired from the chair in favour of his much younger (13 years) brother at the beginning of 1962 remaining on the board in a non-executive capacity. He was made president of Rover in 1967. * William Martin-Hurst (1905-1988) Rover's well-liked managing director, was a Maurice Wilks relative by marriage. * Peter Wilks (1920-1972), son of Geoffrey Wilks, took over his uncle Maurice Wilks' technical directorship in 1963 and later became engineering director but he retired for health reasons in July 1971 when only 51''Motor Sport'' magazine page 74, September 1971 and died the following year. * Spencer King (1925-2010) was a nephew of Spencer and Maurice Wilks. He took over as technical director on the retirement of Peter Wilks. Spencer Wilks and John Black of the

Standard Motor Company The Standard Motor Company Limited was a motor vehicle manufacturer, founded in Coventry, England, in 1903 by Reginald Walter Maudslay. For many years, it manufactured Ferguson TE20 tractors powered by its Vanguard engine. All Standard's tract ...

married sisters, daughters of William Hillman bicycle and automobile manufacturer.

References

External links

Still photograph of M C Wilks by British Pathé
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilks, Maurice 1904 births 1963 deaths British automobile designers Land Rover People educated at Malvern College Rover Company People from Hayling Island