[1] He was knighted in 1942 for these services and for organising the reconstruction of bomb-damaged Coventry after its saturation bombing by the Luftwaffe on 14–15 November 1940.

In the 1950s, he became a leader of Britain's export drive,[1] and chaired a committee to found the University of Warwick with a vision of academic links with industry.

[2] The Rootes Social Building and halls of residence were built at the university c. 1966, named posthumously in his honour.

William (Snr) attended a motor show organised by Sir David Salomons in Tunbridge Wells in 1895.

The marriage produced two sons, William Geoffrey Rootes (1917–1992) who between 1967 and 1973 served as chairman of the family business (at that time a subsidiary of Chrysler Corporation and renamed as Chrysler United Kingdom)[5] and Brian Gordon Rootes (1919–1971) who also held a succession of senior positions within the company between 1937 and 1967, interrupted by a period of military service during the Second World War.