William Lyons was born in 1901. His father owned a musical instrument store and his mother was the daughter of a mill owner, but what grabbed William’s fancy were automobiles. Following his studies at The Arnold School, Lyons won an engineering apprenticeship with Crossley Motors, at the same time continuing his studies at a technical school. Leaving Crossley, he became a salesman for Brown & Mallalieu, a Sunbeam dealer in Blackpool.
In 1921, a meeting with William Walmsley started Lyons on a journey that would create one of the world’s most recognized automotive brands. Walmsley was transforming military surplus motorcycles for civilian use and building sidecars for them. Lyons was quite taken with Walmsley’s sidecars, and bought one for his own.
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