Geoffrey Healey

Geoffrey Carroll Healey (1922-1994), British car designer, was born in Perranporth, Cornwall, the son of Donald Healey and his wife Ivy Maud, on December 14th 1922. He died on April 29th 1994.

Initially a pupil at Truro School, he transferred to Emscote Lawn School, Warwick in 1934, when his father started to be employed by the Triumph Motor Company in Coventry as their Experimental Manager. Geoffrey moved to Warwick School in April 1937, and took his School Certificate there in 1939.

At the start of the Second World War, Geoffrey his mother and brothers moved back to Cornwall, whereupon Geoffrey studied metallurgy at the Camborne School of Mines. Soon afterwards he became an apprentice at Cornercroft in Coventry and studied engineering at Coventry Technical College. He joined the new REME corps of the Army in late 1943, serving in Syria, the Lebanon and Egypt, reaching the rank of Captain.

Demobilised in 1947, he joined Armstrong Siddeley Motors as a development engineer. He stayed there for two years, before joining his father Donald in Warwick, also as Development Engineer.

Two years after his death, his life story was published as "The Healey Story". This has been reviewed as "a Cornish father and son partnership and their 30-year involvement in the motor industry. The cars they made are still highly sought-after in Europe, the US and Australia, where many of the specials Geoffrey Healey prepared can now be found."

References

'The Healey Story: A Dynamic Father and Son Partnership and Their World-beating Cars'. Geoffrey Healey ISBN 0-85429-949-1. G.T.Foulis & Co (1996) (Haynes Group)