Biographical Data - D

Day, Sir Graham

Sir Graham Day was born in Canada. After the restructuring of the British shipbuilding industry, he was appointed Director General of British Motor Holdings (later British Leyland, British Leyland Cars, British Leyland Ltd) in 1986.
He decides in 1987, that all new models should be called ROVER or Land-Rover. "Austin" dies as a badge, "MG" is kept in reserve.
 
"Above all, I wanted to see to it that the public perception of the reality of the improved products adapts to the fact that we are manufacturers of high-quality special vehicles. Investigations to determine which of our brands corresponds best to this ideal image have always indicated the name ROVER in UK and abroad."

Deale, Roland

Roland Deale was Chief Draughtsman for Power Transmission in 1958 and head of [⇒ Frank Shaw], who was in charge of transmission development.

Dick, Alick

After the "Palace Revolution" in January 1954, at the age of 34, Alick Dick succeeds [⇒ Sir John Black] as chief of Standard-Triumph.
His uncle is married to a Hillman daughter. Shortly after his appointment, he receives an offer for merger talks from [ ⇒ Spencer Wilks]. These talks fail in 1955.
Wilks again had such conversations with Dick in 1959, but these also failed.

Diesel, Dr. Rudolf

In September 1913 Dr. Rudolf Diesel is expected in vain from [⇒ Dudley Noble], advertising and PR director at ROVER, in Harwich. Dr. Diesel has disappeared from the SS Dresden together with all the other plans of his engines.
Allegedly he fell overboard during the crossing - unnoticed, of course.
Also in the eyes of ROVER there are many different applications for the diesel engines that one wants to talk about. The engine is of great strategic importance, e. g. for submarine construction. The British Admiralty is interested in the plans at least as much as the Prussian Navy.
Although Dr. Diesel has financial and personal problems - which can safely be solved by the sale of the plans or a licensed production of the engines - it is unlikely that Dr. Diesel will be made to jump off the ship voluntarily.

Dixon-Hartland, Sir Frederick

At around 1900 Sir Frederick is chairman of the board of ROVER Cycle Company.

Dunn, Mike

Mike Dunn is an engineer at Alvis when the company is taken over by ROVER. He is involved in the development of the "P6BS"sports car.
Around 1989 he is chief engineer at Rolls Royce.