William Black, Baron Black

[1] In 1946 he started negotiations with Charles H Roe which led to PRV taking over the Leeds coachbuilding business, and it was 'Bill' Black who secured the merger of Park Royal-Roe with AEC, giving the ACV group some in-house bodybuilding capacity for the first time.

During his managing directorship of PRV the AEC Routemaster, Bridgemaster and Monocoach integral designs were produced as well as body-on-chassis models and key members of staff were recruited from Bristol Commercial Vehicles and Eastern Coach Works.

[5][8] His coat of arms are a curiosity, since he was allowed by the heraldic authority to include his dog Fred and the monkey Bimbo.

Fred had often escaped from the castle and ran to the nearby Chessington Zoo in Surrey, where he was regularly collected by the chauffeur in the Rolls-Royce of Lord Black.

The baron was thankful for the publicity, and concluded that it would be a nice idea to include the pair of animals in his coat of arms.