When William Lyons’ son, John, turned 21 he gave him a beautiful XK120 open-two-seater. Amazingly it survives as a historically important car
HIS COMPANY might have produced some of the greatest cars ever made but Sir William Lyons was renowned for being tight with money. As former test driver, the late Norman Dewis, said during a 2013 interview, “Until you worked for Jaguar, you didn’t know what mean was.”
But in 1951 Lyons showed a rare moment of generosity when he gave his only son John a beautiful XK120 open two-seater for his 21st birthday. John loved the car and would keep it until his untimely passing four years later.
Despite later owners being spread around the globe, his XK120 survives, a lasting testament of the affection between a father and his son.
John Michael Lyons was born on 24 February 1930, three years after his older sister Pat and seven before his younger sister Mary arrived. He attended a local preparatory school in Warwickshire before going to Oundle, a well-known public school in Northamptonshire which had been chosen by his parents due to its historical links with engineering. This was then followed by a three-year apprenticeship at Leyland Motors.
When John turned 21 his father presented him with a Suede Green XK120, registered KRW 923 (chassis 660696), that he’d personally ordered for his son. The Jaguar replaced John’s first car, a two-seater Standard prototype, HWK 10, that was originally built in 1939. After being stored in the stables of the Lyons family home of Wappenbury Hall during the war, the car had been recommissioned in December 1948 by Jaguar’s service manager and later competition boss, Lofty England, for John’s use. He apparently drove the by then elderly Standard across a still war-torn Europe to Rome and back.
His father might have owned the company that made them, but a new XK120 roadster was still a fine present for a young man and in the November 2006 issue of Jaguar World Monthly his younger sister Mary admitted to being disappointed when she ‘only’ received a gold bracelet for hers.
But the joy of ownership was diminished by a lack of funds. “I remember him joking once, ‘Fat lot of good it is to me – I haven’t got money to buy petrol,’” said big sister Pat in Philip Porter and Paul Skilleter’s 2001 official biography about Sir William Lyons.
Yet it’s clear John still enjoyed his 21st present, taking part in several motorsport events. One of these was the 1951 RAC Rally when he finished second in the 3000cc class of Scotland’s notorious Rest and Be Thankful hillclimb stage behind Pat’s husband and therefore John’s brother-in-law, Ian Appleyard, in his own XK120.
John served his 18-month National Service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). After being posted to a potential officer
