John Black (Motor industry)

Sir John Paul Black (10 February 1895 – 24 December 1965) held several senior positions in the British motor industry including chairman of Standard-Triumph.

He was born in Kingston upon Thames on 10 February 1895 the fourth son of Ellen (Smith) and her husband John George Black, a clerk in the Public Record Office now Britain's national archives. He studied law at the University of London. During the First World War he served first in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve before transferring to the Royal Tank Regiment, where he gained the rank of Captain.

After the war he joined Hillman Motor Car Company as sales manager in 1918 and was appointed a director in 1919. In 1921 Black married Daisy Hillman one of the daughters of owner William Hillman, the marriage was dissolved in 1939. He was appointed joint managing director alongside his brother-in-law Spencer Wilks who had married one of Daisy's sisters. When Hillman amalgamated with Humber and Commer in 1928 Black joined their boards.

He resigned his posts in July 1929 after Hillman fell under the control of the Rootes brothers and in September 1929 took up a new position at the Standard Motor Company. He was appointed Standard's joint managing director (with founder R W Maudslay) in September 1933. Maudslay died little more than a year later.

With the possibility of war again looming he enthusiastically backed the government scheme for shadow factories and managed two, at Banner Lane and Canley built by the government for the manufacture of aero engines and for aircraft.

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