William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes

William Edward Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes GBE (17 August 1894–12 December 1964) was a Coventry motor manufacturer. He opened his first car sales agency in 1913, leading to the global Rootes Group. During the Second World War he supervised the volume manufacture of aircraft and engines, as well as the supply of military motor vehicles and armoured fighting vehicles. He was knighted in 1942 for these services and for organising the reconstruction of bomb-damaged Coventry after its saturation b