Born London, September 12, 1922. Died London, February 6, 2009, aged 86.
March 26, 2009 12:42A major figure in the motor sales industry, Lionel Altman supported arts and culture through public service.
The son of a paper merchant in the City of London, he grew up with his younger sister in Golders Green, north west London, and studied at business school.
In the Second World War he joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps at 19, trained as a radio mechanic and served as a sergeant. His aptitude and memory for detail led to a transfer and he was sent to the Far East, to the Karol Bagh intelligence centre on the outskirts of New Delhi, the main centre for intercepting Japanese communications.
While there he produced and presented a popular request programme for All India Radio, under the name Clive Barrington. He was assigned to Lord Mountbatten in the transfer of power leading up to Indian independence in 1947, before being demobilised and starting his career at home.
Through a family contact, he learned the groundwork of the car sales business as a director of Carmo Holdings from 1947-63. He then worked for entrepreneur Charles Clore as chairman and managing director of Sears Holdings Motor Group and Sears Finance.
In the 1980s he moved into public relations, in which he had long been interested as a founding member of its professional institute in 1948.
A national council member of the Motor Agents Association from 1965, he was president from 1975-77. In 1968 as chairman of the Motor Industry Working Party, he presented the Altman report on recruitment and training.
From 1988-92 he was a member of the Retail Motor Industry Working Party on the Single European Market. He was appointed CBE in 1979 for his contribution to the car industry.
Branching out into public service in retirement, he became mentor to newly elected MP David Amess.
He was an effective member of the Raoul Wallenberg apeals committee, which in 1997 unveiled the imposing sculpture near Marble Arch honouring the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews in Budapest through issuing “protective passes” before disappearing into the hands of the Russians in 1945.
His most recent cultural enterprise was to help organise the monumental Battle of Britain war memorial near Westminster Bridge, which was unveiled in 2008.
After moving to the Barbican in the City of London, he became involved in local activities, elected to the Court of Common Councilmen in 1996 as a representative for Cripplegate Within.
He was chairman of the library and arts committee and a governor of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he was made a fellow in 2008.
He is survived by his wife, Diana, to whom he was married for 20 years, following three divorces, and by a son from his second marriage, two daughters from his third marriage, and five grandchildren.