A fond goodbye to John Haynes OBE

Kind, generous, talented and dedicated – John will be dearly missed by family, friends, and the millions of ordinary car owners he reached with his famous Haynes Manuals.

John Harold Haynes OBE

25^th March 1938 to 8^th February 2019

John in the Haynes International Motor Museum in Sparkford, Somerset.

The beginnings of the Haynes Manuals

Looking back, we can see from a young age that John had an affinity for both cars and publishing. As a pupil at Sutton Valence School in Kent he converted an Austin 7 into a lightweight sporty Austin 7 ‘Special’ – producing a how-to booklet that proved very popular with other local enthusiasts.

Haynes maintained his skill with motors during his National Service time in the Royal Air Force. And in 1965, a friend and colleague came to him for help rebuilding a ‘Frogeye’ Sprite. John realised that the official factory manual was no help to your ordinary car owner – but he could be. His step-by-step photos and notes on this first major project became the first Haynes Manual for the Austin Healey Sprite, published in 1966.

Today, over 200 million Haynes Manuals have been sold worldwide.

A lifelong passion for cars

John continued to support and inspire motoring enthusiasts for the rest of his life – especially in the UK. In 1985 he founded the Haynes International Motor Museum in Sparkford, Somerset as an Educational Charitable Trust, giving 30 cars from his own private collection. He continued to donate cars and funding to the museum, which now displays more than 400 vehicles and welcomes 125,000 visitors a year.

A family man, John is survived by his wife Annette, who shares his passion for cars and had a huge impact on the success of the Haynes Publishing Group. She still serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Haynes International Motor Museum. Together they had three children and now five much-loved grandchildren.