Eric William Neale (26 September 1910 – 1997) was a British

car designer Automotive design is the process of developing the appearance (and to some extent the ergonomics) of motor vehicles, including automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, and vans. The functional design and development of a modern motor ...

Biography

Born in

Halesowen Halesowen ( ) is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically an exclave of Shropshire and, from 1844, in Worcestershire, ...

, Worcestershire and educated at Halesowen Grammar School. He served as an apprentice designer at Mulliners in Birmingham. In 1929 he left Mulliners to join Samuel Holbrook Limited in

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

who made bodies for

Alvis Alvis is a given name and a surname (close to the uncommon Scottish surname Alves). Alvis may also refer to: *Alvi, a Muslim community in South Asia, who claims descent from the fourth Rashidun caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib *Alvis Car and Engineering ...

, Triumph and

Armstrong Siddeley Armstrong Siddeley was a British engineering group that operated during the first half of the 20th century. It was formed in 1919 and is best known for the production of luxury vehicles and aircraft engines. The company was created following t ...

. After only two years he moved on to join

Singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

in Birmingham as a body designer, and later to Daimler where he worked on Lanchester and Daimler saloons. In the late 1930s Neale moved to

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

and then to Wolseley. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Neale served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. After the war Neale went back to Wolseley and then in 1946 moved to Jensen. Neale resigned from Jensen in 1966 following Jensen's decision to drop his P66 design in favour of the Touring design for the new Jensen Interceptor although he played an important role in amending the Italian Interceptor design so as to improve its appearance and make it suitable for production. His reputation as a stylist was somewhat negatively affected for many years by the headlamp design for the C-V8, however he was too loyal to his former employer to reveal that the teardrop-shaped headlamp covers of his original design had been removed prior to production by Richard Jensen, thereby leading to the controversial appearance of the production cars. Eric Neale died in 1997.

Some of his cars

* Singer Nine *

Austin A40 Sports The Austin A40 Sports was introduced at the 1949 London Motor Show at Earls Court as a four-passenger, aluminium-bodied convertible variant of the Austin A40 – carrying an ''Austin of England'' nameplate, bearing Austin's ''Flying A'' bonnet m ...

(1951–1953) * Jensen Interceptor (1950) * Jensen 541 * Jensen C-V8 1962–1966 * Jensen P66 * Jensen Interceptor (1966–1976) co-stylist

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neale, Eric 1910 births People from Halesowen British automobile designers 1997 deaths Date of death missing Place of birth missing Place of death missing