Background
Walter Owen Bentley served an engineering apprenticeship on the Great Northern Railway, raced motorcycles, and from 1912 sold and modified French DFP cars in London with his brother. During the First World War he designed the BR1 and BR2 rotary aero engines, whose aluminium pistons he later applied to car engines.
Role at Bentley Motors
W.O. Bentley founded Bentley Motors on 10 July 1919 with the brief he set himself: to build a fast car, a good car, the best in its class. His first engine was a 3 litre with four valves per cylinder and an overhead camshaft, good for 85 bhp and about 80 mph, and the cars won the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times between 1924 and 1930. He was an engineer rather than a financier: the Depression left the company unable to meet its mortgage payments, and in 1931 it went into receivership and was bought for 125,275 pounds by Rolls-Royce. W.O. worked under contract at Derby until 1935, where he helped develop the 3.5 litre Derby Bentley, then joined Lagonda as technical director. He died in August 1971, aged 82. Walter Owen Bentley (W.O. Bentley) was born in 1888.