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Former Jaguar engineer Norman Dewis OBE passed away on 8 June. The last surviving member of the brilliant team that put the marque on the map during the ’50s, he worked closely with Sir William Lyons, Bill Heynes, Malcolm Sayer and ‘Lofty’ England during a period in which the firm achieved worldwide motorsport success and developed landmark models such as the XK range, E-type and XJ6.
Inevitably, it is with Jaguar that Dewis’ name will forever be associated, but his could confidently be referred to as a full life. Born in Coventry, he left school when his father died in 1934, going on to join Humber and Armstrong Siddeley before serving as a turret gunner in Bristol Blenheim light bombers during the Second World War. In January 1952, he joined Jaguar after a spell with Lea-francis.
“Bill Heynes asked me if I’d go for an interview,” he recalled. “I was very happy at Lea-francis. It was a very small company, like Jaguar, but we thought the Lea-francis car was better than the Jag.
“I went one evening and we had a long chat. At the end of it, he said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I still think Lea-francis is my forté.’ He said, ‘What would persuade you to join us?’ I said, ‘An extra £2 a week.’ Now, £2 a week was way up – I thought he’d say no. He hesitated and said, ‘We’ll pay you that.’
“As we came out of his office, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Mr Dewis, when you join us, don’t let any of the other engineers hear what we’re paying you.’ So I kept it quiet for years – no one knew what I earned!”
Dewis’ first job was to solve the many problems that were being encountered with disc brakes, switching from XK120 to C-type for their development. He reasoned that if they could be made to work on Jaguar’s fastest car, they’d work on everything else. The final signoff came via an entry on the 1952 Mille Miglia for Dewis and Stirling Moss in a disc-equipped C-type.
His record runs at Jabbeke and work on the legendary D-type are rightly lauded – Mike Hawthorn,
‘His greatest contribution came via his day job, relentlesly developing road cars with the “feel” that once defined Jaguar’
for one, implicitly trusted Dewis’ judgement – but his greatest contribution came via his day job, relentlessly developing Jaguar road cars and giving them the unmistakable ‘feel’ that once defined the marque. Those who worked with Dewis remembered him as hard but fair – one of his nicknames was ‘LBH’ (or Little Bloody Hitler) – and joining his test department was considered the Holy Grail for apprentices. Those who thought it would be a glamorous job that broadly equated to being a racing driver were quickly moved on.
An honest and straightforward man, Dewis was never afraid to make himself unpopular and later in his career he was a lone voice arguing that the XJ40 wasn’t ready for launch. By then, he admitted, the firm was almost unrecognisable from when he’d started, but to this day there are people at Jaguar applying lessons and carrying out test procedures that they learned during their time with Dewis.
After his mid-’80s retirement he travelled the world with Jaguar, and was always delighted to meet fellow enthusiasts. His recall was impeccable and he had an endless supply of stories, all delivered as if for the first time with a twinkle in his eye and a keen sense of humour.
Small of stature he might have been, but he was a giant in British automotive history. James Page