F. R. W. “Lofty” England

Jaguar competitions manager and team manager during the C-Type and D-Type Le Mans programme. The D-Type first raced at Le Mans in 1954 and took Jaguar's factory win there in 1955.

He was born in Finchley, London, on 24 August 1911. In 1927 he began a five-year apprenticeship at Daimler’s London depot at Hendon and, in 1932, drove a customer’s Double Six to second place in the first RAC Rally. He subsequently worked as a racing mechanic for Tim Birkin, Whitney Straight and ERA, returned to Alvis at Coventry in 1938 as service engineer, joined the RAF in 1941, qualified as a pilot in the United States in 1943 and flew Lancasters.

Through a Brooklands friendship with Walter Hassan, England joined Jaguar as service manager in September 1946. After XK120s competed at Silverstone in 1949 and at Le Mans in 1950, Jaguar says William Lyons was persuaded by William Heynes and England to commission a car built solely for racing. The C-Type won Le Mans in 1951 with Peter Whitehead and Peter Walker, and in 1953 with Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton.

Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust identifies England as team manager and Heynes as engineer when Jaguar decided a successor to the C-Type was necessary. The D-Type made its Le Mans debut in 1954, when Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt finished second to José Froilán González and Maurice Trintignant. Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb won in 1955. In 1956 Ecurie Ecosse won after the works D-Types failed; after Jaguar withdrew, Ecurie Ecosse won again in 1957 with Ron Flockhart and Ivor Bueb.