Henry's Lieutenants

Sir Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry

Sir Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry 1878-1956 "I know of only two members of the Ford staff who ever spent a night with the Fords. One was our English manager , the present Lord Perry. I was the other. —Charles E. Sorensen * Ford Motor Company worldwide growth was stimulated to a great extent by the vision and resourcefulness of Sir Percival Perry. From 1906 until 1948, with the exception of a few years, Perry operated Ford's major overseas plants. The Fords were close friends of the Perrys, Clara Ford being particularly fond of Lady Catherine. Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry was born in Bristol, England, on March 18,1878, the son of Alfred Thomas Perry, a clerk, and Elizabeth Wheeler Perry. Percival grew up in nearby Birmingham, where he attended King Edward's School on a scholarship. He might have gone into law if he had had sufficient funds. Instead, at seventeen, he went to London, where he found work with the bicycle dealer H. J. Lawson, who was interested in automobiles as well as bicycles. Perry was allowed to demonstrate one of Lawson's autos in the 1897 Diamond Jubilee Parade in London. By 1898, he was driving a motor tricycle of his own and frequently drove from London to Hull, where an uncle operated a printing business. Perry worked a short time for his uncle, and it was in Hull, in 1902, that he married Catherine Meals, daughter of a local postmaster. They returned to London, where Perry's aim was to get into the automobile business. In 1904, he joined a partnership to form the American Motor Car Company which had obtained a five-year franchise to sell Ford automobiles (Models A, B, and C) throughout Europe. The franchise itself cost only 50 pounds a year. The five partners each subscribed 500 pounds, with Perry's father-in-law helping to finance Perry in this endeavor. The name of the business was changed to Central Motor Car Company in 1905—after all, it was a British concern, not American. Perry essentially ran the business and was credited in 1906 * From Charles E. Sorensen, My Forty Years with Ford (New York: W.W.Norton , 1956), p. 12. 227 Henry's Lieutenants with introducing Ford Model B landaulet taxicabs in London, where authorities then insisted all taxicabs were to be painted white so pedestrians could easily see them and thus avoid being struck by one of them. Although Perry worked hard, the Central Motor Car Company was not very profitable. In 1906, he decided to go to America and suggest that the Ford Motor Company establish a branch of its own in Britain, no doubt offering to take charge of such a branch himself. His trip to the United States included a meeting in New York with R. M. Lockwood , the Ford export manager with whom he had been dealing, and a meeting in Detroit with John S. Gray, president of Ford Motor Company . Finally, Perry and his wife were to see Henry Ford himself. The Perrys were to stay overnight with the Fords in their sixtydollar -per-month flat at 145 Harper Avenue. Perry's impression of Ford at that time was that "he was a proper Puck." It was on a later visit, in 1908, that Perry finalized an agreement with Ford for a branch of Ford Motor Company to be established at 55 Shaftesbury Avenue, London. Perry was appointed manager of the branch. More than sixty local dealerships were soon organized throughout Britain, and the brand new Model T Ford sold exceptionally well. In 1911, Perry leased a much larger plant in Trafford Park on the outskirts of Manchester. At this new location, he not only sold imported complete Ford vehicles but began to assemble cars using British-built bodies and fenders on the Ford chassis. It was clear his aim was eventually to build complete Ford automobiles in England, because by 1912 an expanded Manchester plant included both assembly and body-building facilities. With the sale of nearly 10,000 cars in 1914, the Ford car was far outselling its competitors in Britain. It is interesting that as early as 1911 at Trafford Park, Perry was concerned for the welfare of his workers. He was concerned about living conditions of employees and the low pay they were receiving in the rather lucrative automobile business. This was three years before the widely heralded five-dollar-per-day program took effect in Detroit. In 1911, workers at Manchester...