Denis Kendall

William Denis Kendall was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire. When he was fourteen, he ran away to sea and made £5,000—a huge sum at the time—helping police raid opium dens along China's Yangtze River before running a waterfront cabaret in Shanghai. He then relocated to the US as a steeplejack. Later, he went to work for a Philadelphia car plant and eventually became works manager for the Paris Citroen car factory.

In 1938, Kendall went to Grantham, Lincolnshire, and became Managing Director of British Manufacture And Research Co (BMARC), which was set up by the French subsidiary of Hispano-Suiza and Lord Brownlow to manufacture aircraft cannon. Kendall became a member or affiliate of the British National Party (BNP). Kendall attracted the notice of the British security service for his Fascist sympathies, his suspected German links, his possible involvement in arms trafficking and his notorious indiscretion. By 1942, MI5 security service files describe him as a "larger than life" figure.

He won the parliamentary seat of Grantham in a 1942 by-election when he defeated the National Government candidate by just 367 votes. When he won the by-election, the magazine Picture Post published a lengthy interview with accompanying action pictures and the eye-catching quote: "I won't sit down and I won't shut up". As the Managing Director for the British Manufacture and Research Company in Grantham, Kendall had controversial views on war production, which he took every opportunity to publicise. He learnt his engineering skills at car factories in the US and France. His factory was highly productive, where workers were well-paid and provided with endless music and dance parties. He hired an organ and cinema organist to entertain them.

He retained the seat in July 1945 with an increased majority of 15,513. He developed plans to produce a "People's Car", and displayed a prototype outside Parliament in August 1945. A company, Grantham Productions, was set up to manufacture the car, and also agricultural tractors. He failed to secure adequate finance, despite the promise of funds from the Jamsahib of Nawanagar, India, and the company went into liquidation. The plans and tooling for the car were sold to Hartnett of Australia, and the tractor factory was sold to Newman Tractors. In August 1945 he also set up Grantham Publications, which published the weekly Grantham Guardian from November 1945 to December 1950.

He was defeated in the 1950 General Election, and again in the 1951 General Election. In 1952, he moved to the US, and set up the American Manufacture and Research Co (American MARC) in Inglewood, California to produce small diesel engines. This was sold in 1961 and he then set up Dynapower Systems Corporation and Dynapower Medionics.