PAPERS RELATING TO SIR HERBERT AUSTIN AND THE AUSTIN MOTOR COMPANY

• <corpname>Austin Motor Company of Longbridge, Birmingham</corpname>
• <persname>Austin, Sir, Herbert, 1866-1941, 1st Baron Austin, motor manufacturer</persname>

This set of papers consists of five separate accessions:

Accession (80/21)

These sketches were part of the Austin memorabilia owned by the Company and were pasted up onto cardboard and placed in a display unit which used to stand outside the exhibition hall in the Round House in Longbridge. In approximately 1980 they were passed on to B.M.I.H.T. where they were displayed in the same form in the Heritage Museum first at Donington Park, and later at Syon Park. In 1994 they were removed from the display boards and put into individual envelopes, but it was not possible to remove the backing cardboard as this would have irreparably damaged them.

(source: Richard Westcott, former General Manager of B.M.I.H.T.).

Howitt Accession (93/122)

These papers and artefacts were bought at auction (Biddle and Co., Birmingham) in 1993. They originally came from the office of Mr Howitt, Lord Austin's private secretary for many years.

Bramley Accession (95/52)

These papers were donated by the family of J. F. Bramley in July 1995, who was the Austin Export Company manager for many years and also a personal friend of Sir Herbert Austin.

96/118

Bramley Accession (97/11)

Lord Austin, 1866-1941

Sir Herbert Austin was born in 1866 in Little Missendon in Buckinghamshire, the son of Giles Austin (a farmer). In 1870, the family moved to Wentworth in Yorkshire and Herbert later attended the grammer school in Rotherham. He had several brothers and sisters, one of whom, Harry, later joined him in his business. As a young man, Herbert wanted to be an engineer, and in 1884 went to Australia with an uncle who had emigrated there: In 1887 he married Helen Dron, with whom he had one son, Vernon (who died in 1915 on the Western Front), and two daughters, Irene and Zita.

In Australia he followed several careers before meeting Frederick Wolseley, owner of the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company, which he joined in 1888. In 1893 he returned to England to become General Manager of the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company, which had moved its headquarters from Sydney to Birmingham. He set up manufacturing premises in Alma Street, Birmingham, where he indulged his interest in the design of a horseless motor vehicle and in 1896 exhibited an experimental motor vehicle at Crystal Palace, while his third car design won a silver medal in the 1000 miles trial in 1900. In 1901 he persuaded Vickers Ltd to buy out Wolseley's motor vehicle business and became General Manager of the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company, which operated from a factory at Adderley Park in Birmingham. By 1905, however, he was dissatisfied with his position there and left to found the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge, 8 miles outside Birmingham.

He was knighted in 1914 and from 1918 to 1924 was Conservative M.P. for Kings Norton, Birmingham. The Austin Motor Company's most successful product was the Austin Seven, a popular small car, which was introduced in 1922. In 1936 he was created Baron Austin of Longbridge. He died on 23 May 1941 at his home, Lickey Grange, in Bromsgrove.