Barrie Price
Pro-Chancellor, distinguished friends, colleagues, graduands and guests.
The work of Arthur Barrie Price, known to most as Barrie, has had a profound effect on the careers of a host of Coventry University students over the past two decades.
As co-founder of the Bugatti Trust, he has helped to provide long-standing and continuing support for industrial design at Coventry University. The Trust presents annual Engineering and Design Awards to students, including a special award to the individual achieving the highest first year results in one of the aerospace, automotive or mechanical engineering courses. It goes without saying that we are incredibly grateful for this support.
Born in Bourneville, Birmingham, Barrie was educated at Redditch County High School, before attending Suffolk Street Technical College, now part of Aston University and later, the University of Warwick where he achieved a Batchelor of Arts.
In his youth, he enjoyed interests in wildlife and the countryside but it would be his love of cars – inspired by the interests of his father, an engineer – which would really shape his career.
Barrie commenced his business career initially as an apprentice in a motor repair business, which his father founded following his wartime occupation as a general manager of one and, eventually two, factories of the Helliwells Aircraft Group.
It’s fair to say Barrie has spent much of his career at the more premium end of the automobile industry. For 40 years, he developed and ran a specialist Rolls Royce repair business and in 1962, he purchased the assets of Lea Francis cars. As well as maintaining a repair and parts service for all cars dating back to 1923, Barrie also developed and built a batch of new Lea Francis cars for market appraisal in the 1980s.
The love of all cars has continued to blossom over the years and Barrie has written several books on various aspects of the motor industry, as well as holding the position of director of the Warwickshire Garage and Transport Group Training Association for over 20 years.
However, it would be his love for the French manufacturer Bugatti which has helped him forge such strong and successful links with Coventry University.
His interest in Bugatti started in 1947 when he acted as the racing mechanic for R M Blomfield - who ran a Bugatti - and flourished into, much later, Barrie becoming chairman of the Bugatti Owners’ Club.
As co-founder of the Bugatti Trust, Barrie has played an active role in encouraging the young to take up a career in mechanical engineering using the fine art works of Ettore Bugatti as an inspiration.
The Trust provides active support to the School of Automotive Design at Coventry University, which as the result of generous donations, has named its advanced digital design laboratory the ‘Bugatti Building’. We remain eternally grateful for that support and are pleased that Bugatti will remain as part of our history and heritage.
A father of one, Barrie cites his current hobby as looking after a 600 year old house and garden – as well, of course, as his love of all automobiles.
In recognition of his work with the Bugatti Trust and his support of the University and its students over two decades, Coventry University, by decision of the Academic Board, has the privilege of conferring the Honorary Life Fellowship, honoris causa, on Barrie Price.