From setting up a cycle repair shop at the back of his parents’ home in Oxford, William Morris soon progressed to his own car business. Inspired by Ford’s manufacturing methods, he began assembling his own cars in a former military college at Cowley in 1913. Morris rapidly grew to be the country’s leading car maker, taking over other manufacturers and suppliers along the way. Many of Morris' investments were from his personal wealth and he was noted for benevolence to medicine and charity. He was made Lord Nuffield in 1934, taking the name of the Oxfordshire village that would become his home. When Morris merged with Austin in 1952, Morris became President of the new British Motor Corporation. This formal portrait by Henry L. Gates of a proud Morris shows him in parliamentary robes, as newly-created Baron Nuffield.