John Polwhele Blatchley

John Polwhele Blatchley
Blatchley's best known design, the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud
Born	John Polwhele Blatchley 1 July 1913 Hendon, London, England
Died	16 February 2004 Hastings, Sussex
Nationality	British
Occupation	Car designer (Rolls-Royce)
Spouse(s)	Willow D. J. Sands

John Polwhele Blatchley (1 July 1913 – 16 February 2004, aged 90) was a London-born car designer known for his work with J Gurney Nutting and Rolls-Royce Limited.

Blatchley began his career as designer with J Gurney Nutting & Co Limited in 1935, moving up to Chief Designer before leaving in 1940 to join Rolls-Royce. He served there as a draughtsman (1940–43), a stylist in the car division (1943–55), and chief styling engineer (1955–69).

Blatchley was born in Hendon.

At twelve years of age, Blatchley was diagnosed with rheumatic fever and spent the next three years bedridden. During this time he sketched designs for cars and built models of them.

Blatchley failed his entrance examinations to Cambridge University; his parents sent him to the Chelsea School of Engineering and then to the Regent Street Polytechnic.

While still a student, Blatchley's ability was recognized by A. F. McNeil of J Gurney Nutting & Co Limited. McNeil became Blatchley's teacher, mentor, and friend for many years. Gurney Nutting hired Blatchley upon his graduation in 1935.

Blatchley started at Gurney Nutting by preparing concept drawings for customer approval. In 1936, at the age of twenty-three, he replaced McNeil as Chief Designer when McNeil left Gurney Nutting for James Young & Co.

Unable to fight during World War II due to a heart murmur, Blatchley was moved to Rolls-Royce Aero Design headquarters in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, where he was responsible for the cowling for Merlin engines used in Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft. He described the work as "intensely boring". Towards the end of the war, Rolls-Royce's Car Division had prepared a postwar car which was to have its own factory-supplied bodywork, all-steel so it could be exported all over the world. Blatchley, who had moved to the Design office in their Experimental Department in Belper, Derbyshire, refined the new body's design externally and designed the passenger compartment. This design first appeared in 1946 as the Bentley Mark VI. It appeared in 1949 as the first Rolls-Royce with a standard steel body, the Silver Dawn. Enlarged with an extended boot and wings, the Bentley R Type followed in 1952, the updated rear end appearing on the Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn at the same time. These postwar cars finally took the top-people's-carriage trade away from Daimler.