Sir William Munger Heynes

Born on 31st December 1904 in Leamington Spa and went to Warwick School in Warwick between 1914 and 1921, joining the Humber Motor Company and helped to design the Humber Super Snipe and Humber Pullman.

He joined Jaguar aged 32, working alongside Harry Westlake producing an engine that went into the very first “Jaguar” SS100 by converting a 70 bhp 2500cc Standard pushrod engine into an overhead valve version which then made 100bhp.

He then went on to design with his team, the Jaguar XK straight-six producing a nearly indestructible block with a twin-cam cylinder head and producing 125 hp.

They wanted to showcase the new XK engine, so William Lyons working with William Heynes and Fred Gardner, designed and built the XK 120.

Heynes was Chief Engineer at Jaguar from 1935 until his retirement in 1969 where he concentrated on his farm near Snitterfield until he died in 1989.

In the 1969 birthday honours, he was knighted for his lifetime accomplishments while as the Vice Chairman, Director of Engineering for Jaguar Cars Ltd, for services to Export.