Known to the wider public as the inventor of the Workmate, Hickman who died on 17 February aged 78 will always be remembered by petrolheads as the man behind the Lotus Elan.

A talented pianist whose abiding love was drawing cars, Hickman came to Britain from South Africa in 1955, finding work at Ford, as a stylist. A meeting with Colin Chapman led to Hickman’s Lotus career where he rapidly became a director and the mercurial Lotus founder’s right hand man. His Lotus Elan with its central backbone chassis and independent suspension overcame the torsional stiffness problems of Chapman’s earlier Elite.  The Lotus Europa also came from Hickman’s pen.

Originally Lotus’s submission to Ford, which was looking for a specialist to build its projected Le Mans racer (in the end Ford went to Eric Broadley’s Lola) Lotus refined the concept to put the mid engined 47 into production.

Nine years of Lotus which teetered perpetually on the brink of bankruptcy were enough for Hickman who resigned to concentrate on his own designs including a folding workbench. After struggling to market it, he sold the design to Black & Decker, reputedly earning a royalty of £1 on each one sold and became a rich man. His stunning designer home on Jersey is a tribute to Hickman’s irrepressible creativity.