Wednesday 23rd May 1962
Louis Hervé Coatalen (82), French automobile engineer, died. After working for De Dion-Bouton, Clément-Bayard and Panhard-Levassor he left France to work in England in 1900. After a short time with the Crowden Motor Car Company, he became chief engineer with the Humber Car Company. In 1906 he went into partnership with William Hillman to form the Hillman-Coatalen company. The partnership was dissolved in 1909 when Coatalen moved from Coventry to Wolverhampton to join Sunbeam, becoming joint managing director in 1914. During World War I he designed aircraft engines for Sunbeam.