Bernard Docker

Sir Bernard Dudley Frank Docker (9 August 1896 – 22 May 1978) was an English industrialist.

Early life Docker was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham on 9 August 1896. He was the only child of Frank Dudley Docker, an English businessman and financier, and Lucy Constance (daughter of distinguished lawyer John Benbow Hebbert). His parents initially lived at Rotton Park Lodge, close to the Docker Brothers varnish factory, before moving to The Gables, at Kenilworth, and, in 1935 moved to Coleshill House, Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

Career Docker was the managing director of the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) group of companies from the early 1940s until 1956.

He was the Chair of the British Hospitals Association in 1941 and represented them on the Nurses Salaries Committee chaired by Lord Rushcliffe which published two reports in 1943.

At the end of May 1956, Docker was removed from the board of BSA, and he was replaced as chairman by Jack Sangster.

Green Goddess

Docker commissioned Hooper & Co. to build a drophead coupé on a Daimler DE-36 chassis for display at the first post-war British International Motor Show at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in 1948. Named the "Green Goddess" by the press, the car had five seats, three windscreen wipers, and hydraulic operation of both the hood and the hood cover. After the show, the car was further tested and refined, after which it was kept by Docker for his personal use. The car was covered with 7,000 tiny gold stars, and all plating that would normally have been chrome was gold. 1955 – Golden Zebra The Golden Zebra was a two-door coupé based on the DK400 chassis.