Lord Donald Gresham Stokes (22 March1914 - ) was an English industrialist who started his career in 1930 as an apprentice with Leyland Motors Ltd, and (with a break for military service between 1939 and 1945) enjoyed a successful career within that company until his appointment in 1968 as chairman and managing director of the British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BL), a challenging role much in the public eye at the time, and one that he sustained with evident ebullience till 1975. Stokes remained on the board till 1979. For other uses, see Lord (disambiguation). ... is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Leyland Motors Limited was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries and buses. ... British Leyland corporate logo The British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968. ...
Both before and during his period of leadership, the British auto industry suffered from poor profitability, which went hand in hand with chronic under-investment in production technologies and facilities. This was a part of the background to BL's famously awful industrial relations during the 1970s. Characteristic BL introductions included the Morris Marina and Austin Allegro, inspired respectively by the more thoughtfully developed and charismatic Ford Cortina and Citroen GS competitor products. The Marina was a car manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland throughout the 1970s, a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry. ... The Austin Allegro is a small family car that was manufactured by British Leyland under the Austin name from 1973 until 1983. ... The Ford Cortina was a medium sized family car sold by Ford of Britain in various guises from 1962 to 1982. ... This article needs cleanup. ...
The MG fraternity loathe Lord Stokes because, in their view, he neglected the MG brand and decided the corporate British Leyland sportscar, the TR7, should be badged a Triumph, thus signing the death warrant of MG at Abingdon.
One of the major critisms of Lord Stokes is having inherited an empire of numerous sprawling factories all over the country he failed to rationalise it, with a closure programme and mass redundancies.
Stokes is alluding to the fact that he was seen by the Wilson government as the saviour of the British motor industry, not a hatchet man who would close it down.
Stokes, age 39, of Keller, Texas, was charged in a federal indictment with offenses related to the theft of $30,000 in flawed currency from the Department of Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Western Currency Facility, in Fort Worth.
Stokes was also ordered to forfeit nearly $50,000 in legitimate currency, found in his possession on April 2, 2005, which he had supposedly laundered in casinos.
Stokes admitted to federal agents that he had stolen the money from the Fort Worth Facility and that he had been on a gambling spree through at least four other states.
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