Dewar Trophy presentation

At a pleasant luncheon party at the RAC on the last day of Leap Year February, Mr. Wilfred Andrews of the RAC presented the Dewar Trophy to “Bill” Lyons, of Jaguar Cars, Ltd, for the most outstanding engineering and technical achievement of 1951. Thus is the name Jaguar inscribed on this vast silver trophy along with those of Dennis, Rolls-Royce, Cadillac (twice), Daimler, Napier, Thomas, National, Thornycroft, Armstrong-Siddeley, Rapson, Rover (twice), Invicta (twice) and Mercedes-Benz. Never can the awarding of the Dewar Trophy have been less in doubt, for Jaguar’s victory at Le Mans alone fully entitles them to it, linking their name with Bentley and Lagonda as the immortals in this great 24-hour contest.

WH Heynes, Jaguar’s talented Chief Engineer, the Permanent Secretaries to both the Ministry of Transport and Supply and the President and Director of the SMMT and the Chairman of the Shop Stewards at Jaguars were amongst the guests. Harold Nockolds, of The Times, made the last and neatest of the speeches, but we were disappointed that the drivers Stirling Moss, Peter Walker, Tony Rolt, Jack Fairman, Leslie Johnson and rally-man fan Appleyard were not called upon to speak.