Alice Fenton: Shifting Gears with Jaguar Cars’ First Female Director
By Shihanki Elpitiya
Through hard work, dedication and her own sheer ability, Alice Fenton broke through what we now call the ‘glass ceiling’ by becoming the first and only female Jaguar Cars executive director and the highest placed woman in the British motor industry at the time.
Early career
She joined The Swallow Sidecar Company in 1925 as a Junior Office Assistant after working at the Lyons family music shop in Blackpool where, as a gifted pianist, she would play the piano in the shop window to attract customers.
She took the ‘commercial’ course at school and with shorthand and typing skills, she then became the Personal Secretary of co-founder, William Lyons, at Bloomfield Road staying with the company when it moved to larger premises in Cocker Street. She worked whatever hours were necessary, often into the evening to complete the day’s work. The days were so busy that the only time quiet enough to take dictation was after 17:30pm when everyone else had gone home.
Friendship with Connie Dickson
Alice and Connie Dickson worked together in the office in Cocker Street where they often worked until 19:00 or 20:00pm, sometimes going dancing in the Winter Gardens afterwards as that was the only entertainment available after work.
Alice loved literature, the theatre, music and was an accomplished ballroom dancer, once stating she had danced in every ballroom in the Midlands.
The company started making Swallow bodied cars in 1928 and it was the order from Henlys for 500 that precipitated the move to Coventry. Alice was one of the 32 out of the 50 employees who made the move to Coventry in November 1928, all of whom did so without any removal expenses. Connie didn’t initially come down to Coventry but followed a fortnight later at Alice’s insistence. They shared digs together in Holmsdale Road and in 1936 a house.
After an incident one evening when passing the Holbrook Lane fish and chip shop, where they were pushed into the road, either Lyons or co-founder William Walmsley, usually walked them home at the end of the day’s work.
The sales team
Alice’s duties expanded beyond secretarial and as the company didn’t employ any dedicated sales staff, the sales team became William Lyons and Alice. In October 1929 Swallow Coachwork had a stand at the motor show at Olympia in London and both Alice and Connie went with the company. Alice attended all subsequent UK Motor Shows.
In 1932 a former Triumph employee, Alec Blythe, joined the company to assist Alice with her sales role. She also received some help from Nancy before she moved to become secretary to the new service manager Digby Paul. The 1932 London Motor Show was extremely successful with over 1,000 orders being placed for the new SSI. The business continued to expand and by 1933 the company had 100 nominated agents, 18 of them classed as distributors and it was Alice who sorted out all the agreements and organised deliveries.
War time
The outbreak of war in 1939 meant the company had to cease its 200 cars per week production and concentrate on war work, repairing Whitley bombers and building parts for Stirling, Mosquito, Spitfire and Lancaster aircraft.
When Alice had completed 25 years with the company the distributors and dealers were anxious to know what kind of gift they could present to her in acknowledgement of her unfailing cooperation and camaraderie with them. Her one great wish was to own a grand piano and this she confided to Mr Bertie Henly though at the time she had not a house large enough to accommodate one. So the gift was a cheque, and with the acquisition of a larger house, she was looking forward to being able to fulfil her dream.
During the bombing raids of the Second World War the factory had to close earlier to enable people to drive out of the city or to go to bomb shelters and Alice was free from constant overtime to enjoy more leisure. A group of them would go off to a dance held regularly at the RAF camp out in the country.
The end of the war saw further growth with the launch of the Mark V saloon and the XK120 sports car at the 1948 Motor Show followed by the XK powered Mark VII saloon in 1950.
Home Sales Director
In 1950 Ben Mason joined the company as Export Sales Manager with Alice still looking after the home market.
In March 1956 Lyons created four new directors. Alice was made Home Sales Director the first female Director in the Company’s history – a role she retained until her untimely death in 1960.
Health problems and death
During 1959 she had been having problems with nerves on one side of her face causing some facial paralysis and started receiving treatment for what was thought to be Bell’s palsy. She thought the cause may have been either the draft from the roof of her car or as a result of a minor car accident, that autumn, where she bumped her head.
Having attended all the British Motor Shows since 1929, Lyons decided Alice should attend the 1960 New Year Motor Show at the end of March for the US launch of the new Mark II compact saloon. Rooms had been booked for her at the Waldorf Astoria and she was looking forward to exploring New York and meeting some of the American dealers in person for the first time.
She attended The Motor Show every year from 1935 to 1960 and was preparing to visit the New York Show for the first time when her untimely death on 18 March 1960 due to a cerebral haemorrhage occurred. Alice was ten days short of her fiftieth birthday.
On 21 March 1960 Lyons wrote to all distributors and dealers “It is with the greatest regret that the death is announced of Miss Alice Fenton, Home Sales Director of Jaguar Cars Ltd, who passed away on Saturday night at her home, “Gainsborough, Tamworth Road, Coventry.”
“During the 33 years she served as my personal secretary, her loyalty and enthusiasm for the Company’s progress were invaluable, and I feel that I have lost both a colleague and a friend”.
Sir William’s daughter Pat described Alice as “an absolute tower of strength…who was so efficient, and remembers thinking when young that if anything in the world was wrong all one had to do was get Alice Fenton and it would be put right overnight”.
During her time with the company, Alice was the only female Jaguar executive and the highest-placed woman in the British motor industry.
She achieved all this through hard work, dedication and her own sheer ability and was the only woman of that time to break through what we now call the ‘glass ceiling’.
Her death was reported in both the Birmingham Daily Post and the Coventry Evening Telegraph.
The road off Brown’s Lane that runs down to the Jaguar Social Club, is called Fenton Road in her honour.
Letter from Alice to Connie, 1941
“I do hate the typical spinster, but I have seen many married women become more old maidish than some spinsters, and I do feel that nowadays many of the skits against unmarried women have lost their meaning. The intelligent woman can have a full and thrilling life whether she is married or not.”
“The Women Who Made Their Marque” exhibition
Alice Fenton is featured in “The Women Who Made Their Marque” exhibition which the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust launched on Friday 8 March 2024 on International Women’s Day. It celebrates the women who over the years have made, sold, raced, and contributed to ‘Jaguar’ and its associated marques in myriad ways.
Click the button to view the online version of the exhibition:
Shihanki Elpitiya
I’m the marketing administrator for Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust with over five years of experience working at the Trust and learning about Jaguar and its predecessor companies. I work closely with the Archive team to gather and verify historic information.
Sources
Grimsdale, Peter, High Performance: When Britain Ruled the Roads (Simon & Schuster UK, 2020)
Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and foreword by HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Jaguar (Quiller Press, 1997)
Mennem, Patrick, Jaguar: An Illustrated History (The Crowood Press Ltd, 1991)
Whyte, Andrew, Jaguar: The Definitive History of a Great British Car (Patrick Stephens Limited, 1990)
Martin, Brian James, Jaguar: From the Shop Floor (Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2018)
Porter, Philip and Skilleter, Paul, Sir William Lyons: The Official Biography (Haynes Publishing, 2001)