Vale Arthur Goddard
BY NEIL DOWLING | 22nd Aug 2022
LAND ROVER’S key engineer, who led the development program for the first model from 1947 to 1948, has died in Brisbane aged 101.
Arthur Goddard, the man who was dubbed the godfather of the Land Rover, was an engineer aged in his 20s when Rover technical director Maurice Wilks put him in charge of the Land Rover project.
He was engaged for the task based on his ability to get things done and his straightforward, no-nonsense attitude – all required to take the Land Rover concept from design to production in only a few months.