LORD STOKES 1914 – 2008
Lord Stokes, former chief of British Leyland Motor Corporation, died on July 21, 2008, aged 94. Donald Gresham Stokes was the son of the Transport Manager of the Plymouth City Transport undertaking, in those days one of the clients of Leyland. By the age of 11 he knew that he wanted to work for Leyland Motors.
He joined the company in 1931 as an engineering apprentice and, after wartime service with REME, he returned. Stokes was appointment as Export Manager in 1946, enjoyed a very successful period of overseas sales. He was the driving force behind the export of the Leyland trucks and buses to many European and overseas markets, and behind the licence agreements with companies like DAF in the Netherlands, Finnish Sisu and Belgian Brossel. He joined the Leyland board in 1954, later joining the boards of the acquired AEC company in Southall near London. Stokes’ appointment coincided with the general move towards rationalization and merger in the UK industry, and the ensuing years saw the company buy up rivals such as Albion Motors and Scammell Lorries, before making the jump into car production with the takeover of Standard-Triumph in 1961, followed later by the Rover Group, ending up selling British hardware all over the globe – including Routemaster buses to Cuba!. In the ‘sixties its was the largest bus manufacturer of the world, with makes like Leyland, Albion and AEC, later followed by Guy and Daimler, which came after the acquisition of British Motor Holdings, the amalgamation of BMC and Jaguar.
The British Government's desire to see Leyland take on this ailing British Motor Holdings came about in May 1968, and British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) was created with Sir Donald at its head. It was then the fifth largest automotive manufacturer in the world. However, the merger, which encompassed a dozen of makes, including bus manufacturers Leyland, AEC, Daimler, Guy Albion and bodybuilders Park Royal and Charles H. Roe, nearly 40 factories and over 100 businesses, became a symbol for the failure of government intervention in manufacturing, despite a promising start. In 1975 BLMC was bailed out by the government after nearly hitting bankruptcy in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. Two years later the Government called in Sir Don Ryder to sort out the mess. His report led to a radical government-sponsored restructuring of it as British Leyland (BL), without Stokes. He continued as president of BL until 1981. Bus production was then concentrated in the Leyland National company, which eventually became part of Volvo Bus.
