Sir Bernard Dudley Frank Docker (9 August 1896 – 22 May 1978) was an Englishindustrialist.
Docker was born inEdgbaston, Birmingham on 9 August 1896. He was the only child ofFrank Dudley Docker, an English businessman and financier, and Lucy Constance (daughter of distinguished lawyer John Benbow Hebbert). His parents initially lived atRotton Park Lodge, close to the Docker Brothers varnish factory, before moving to The Gables, atKenilworth, and, in 1935 moved toColeshill House,Amersham, Buckinghamshire.[1]
Docker was the managing director of theBirmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) group of companies from the early 1940s until 1956.
He was the Chair of theBritish Hospitals Association in 1941[2] and represented them on theNurses Salaries Committee chaired byLord Rushcliffe which published two reports in 1943.[3][4]
At the end of May 1956, Docker was removed from the board of BSA, and he was replaced as chairman byJack Sangster.[5] An entire chapter ofNorah: the Autobiography of Lady Docker is devoted to the Dockers and their separation from Midland Bank titled 'The B.S.A. Affair'. The book was ghostwritten and edited byDon Short.
He also chairedThe Daimler Company Limited and theAnglo-Argentine Tramways Company. He was awarded a knighthood in 1938 for his "energetic work during twelve years as the Chairman of Westminster Hospital."
In 1933 Docker married British actressJeanne Stuart (born Ivy Sweet), but the marriage was soon dissolved after pressure from Docker's parents. His father had her tracked by private detectives, and after finding her with an actor, David Hutcheson, Docker divorced her in 1935. She later married BaronEugène von Rothschild in 1952.[6]
His second wife wasNorah Collins (née Norah Royce Turner), a former showgirl that he married atCaxton Hall in 1949. She was the widow of Sir William Collins, the president ofFortnum & Mason, and also the widow of Clement Callingham, the head of Henekeys wine and spirits merchants. They lived at Heath House in Stockbridge.[5]
Without their main source of income, the Dockers began to run out of money. In 1965, Docker putShemara, his yacht, on the market for £600,000; it was eventually sold for £290,000 to British businessmanHarry Hyams.[5] InNorah: the Autobiography of Lady Docker, their isolation was described. "Now we feel alone in this world, long since forgotten by those we helped, with only a handful of true and trusted friends remaining."[5]
Docker commissionedJohn I. Thornycroft & Company to build a 863 tonne yacht to his specifications in 1938, namesShemara. 'I must stress that she was our home,' Norah: the Autobiography of Lady Docker states.[5] MYShemara was requisitioned by theRoyal Navy at the start of theSecond World War in 1939 and used as a training vessel for anti-submarine warfare. It was during a training exercise with HMSShemara that the submarineHMSUntamed was lost with all her crew.[7]Shemara left RN service in 1946[8]
Docker commissionedHooper & Co. to build adrophead coupé on aDaimler DE-36 chassis for display at the first post-warBritish International Motor Show at theEarls Court Exhibition Centre in 1948. Named the "Green Goddess" by the press, the car had five seats, three windscreen wipers, and hydraulic operation of both the hood and the hood cover. After the show, the car was further tested and refined, after which it was kept by Docker for his personal use.[9] Six other chassis were bodied with similar bodies. These were all called "Green Goddesses" after the original, which was exhibited with jade-green coachwork and green-piped beige leather.[9]
Sir Bernard Docker commissioned a series of Daimlers that were built to Lady Docker's specifications for the show circuit.
In ‘Norah: The Autobiography of Lady Docker’, ‘The Golden Daimler’ is given its own chapter. ‘If I could find a single reason for my elevation to the dubious ranks of a celebrity, then I think, I would have a motor car to thank.’ Norah told her husband Sir Bernard Docker of her frustration that no one abroad had heard of Daimler cars. To boost the car's popularity, she asked Bernard: “Why can’t you manufacture a smaller Daimler, suitable for the family?” Bernard invited her to join the company and to take on the project.[5]
The Gold Car was a touring limousine on theThirty-Six Straight-Eight chassis.[10] The car was covered with 7,000 tiny gold stars, and all plating that would normally have been chrome was gold.[11] This car was taken to Paris, the United States and Australia.
Also on the Thirty-Six Straight-Eight chassis,Blue Clover was a two-door sportsman's coupé.
TheSilver Flash was an aluminium-bodied coupé based on the 3-litreRegency chassis. Its accessories included solid silver hairbrushes and red fitted luggage made from crocodile skin.[12]
based on theDF400 chassis. In 2014, the Star Dust limo, "finished with 5,000 sterling silver six-pointed stars" was sold after having been found in a barn in Wales in the 1980s.[13]
TheGolden Zebra was a two-door coupé based on theDK400 chassis.[14] Like theGold Car, theGolden Zebra had all its metal trim pieces plated in gold instead of chrome, and it had an ivory dashboard and zebra-skin upholstery.[14][15][16][17]
In 1934, she married the industrialist Bernard Dudley Docker. Mr. Docker's father was so upset that he hired private detectives to track his son's new wife. The son divorced her after discovering her with the actor David Hutcheson.
Nora's first design, of 1951, was known as The Gold Car, a limousine embellished with 7,000 gold stars; from bonnet to tailpipe all that should have been chrome was gold, and the interior was trimmed in golden camphor wood and gold brocade.
Based on the Daimler Regency model, it sported slightly more restrained solid silver hairbrushes and propelling pencils built into the interior, plus fitted red crocodile skin luggage.[permanent dead link]
In 1966 Golden Zebra, which cost £12,000 to build (many times the value of the average semi-detached house at the time) was offered for sale by Daimler distributors Henlys of Chester with 25,000 miles on the clock for only £1,400.
Undaunted, Lady Nora (sic) ordered a Bentley Continental, also a plush job.
The four-liter coupe featured gold plated exterior trim, an ivory dashboard and, of course, authentic zebra-hide seats. When asked why she chose zebra, Lady Docker replied: "Because mink is too hot to sit on."