“Hoppy was always one for the art of getting a move on.”
Herbert ‘Bert’ Hopwood was a Midlander who held very definite views and had no hesitation in expressing them in a forthright manner. Born in Birmingham in 1908 to a poor family, he left school aged 14 and started work at as a learner in an iron foundry at Components, Ltd. Here he laid the foundation for a successful engineering career through evening classes at technical college.
By winning a memorial prize he came to the notice of Ariel’s chief designer, Val Page, who took him on as a junior draughtsman
