Herbert Austin's father was an unsuccessful Buckinghamshire farmer who had the good fortune to have as a brother the architect to Earl Fitzwilliam and the Wentworth Estate in Yorkshire. When forced to give up his own farm, Giles Austin secured the appointment as farm bailiff on the Wentworth Estate. Herbert had been born in Buckinghamshire in 1866 but he and his elder brother Ernest moved with his parents to Yorkshire where three brothers and a sister followed. Life on the estate was pleasant and Herbert attended the local school and discovered an aptitude for drawing. He went on to Rotherham Grammar school and thence to commercial college.
With drawing as a gift and an uncle as an architect, Herbert took articles only to find that it was not the career for him. Luck once more intervened for a maternal uncle had gone to Australia and was much taken by the new country. Herbert folllowed excited by the prospects. He spent a while working with his uncle before taken a couple more jobs before Wolseley and a sheep shearing machine beckoned. I wrote of this in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World. Herbert also found a wife of Scottish extraction, Helen Dron
Herbert, his wife and the Wolseley company moved back to Britain where Herbert first wrestled with problems with the production of the sheep shearer. It wasn't long before he and Wolseley progressed to their first vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine. Herbert was in his element and he produced a number of successful designs. Herbert though was destined to be more than a general manager of a company then owned by Vickers and as I tell in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World Herbert left and founded the company that bears his name. It also competed magnificently in the many motor races that were held around the country and indeed the world in those days.
Herbert Austin was a big and determined man. He was known as 'Pa' to those who worked with him. He loved the technical side of his work. He was a great inventor of better ways of doing things.
From 1905 through to the end of the First World War, the Austin Motor Company was successful and produced many fine cars. Herbert was awarded a KBE for his work on munitions. In 1914 the factory had stood idle but by the autumn of 1915 orders from the Ministry began to flow. Austin made eight million shells, thousands of vehicles and much more. In particular the company was asked to produce aircraft. To facilitate this they cleared a large expanse of neighbouring land as a runway; after the war this doubled as a test track. The company also build the Longbridge Estate from American manufactured wooden cabins to house workers who were previously travelling long distances. Some 3,000 Belgian refugees were welcomed, housed and given vital work. At one time the total number of men and women working on site numbered 22,000. Tragically Herbert's only son, Vernon, was shot by a sniper late in the war.
The 1920s saw the company's Longbridge factory, underutilised; it had grown to meet the war effort but without the demands of war was simply too big. Herbert had ploughed what had become considerable wealth into the company and other investments leaving him short of liquidity so much so that the Official Receiver was appointed.
Wealth might have gone, but Herbert was in his prime and launched a 20hp car with a 12hp version which was used by 90% of London taxis. His wife pointed out that the public needed a smaller more affordable family car and the Austin Seven was born to great acclaim. It was produced from 1922 to 1939 outselling both Ford and Morris. It performed well in the many motor races held in Britain and around the world.
Austin and Morris are frequently compared and two particular differences emerge. Austin grew organically whereas Morris grew by acquisitions. Morris sourced car parts from external suppliers whereas Austin was keen to produce everything in house. In 1925 Longbridge covered 62 acres on a 220 acre site with 8,000 employees producing 25,000 cars each year. It had its own foundry, forge and machinery shop; body pressing, assembly and paint plant. There were then shops for engines, gear boxes and rear axles.
In 1926 a winding up order was made on the Wolseley Company which had been making substantial losses. Herbert really wanted to buy it, not least for sentimental reasons. William Morris also wanted it to add to his string of acquisitions. Sadly for Herbert, Morris was better placed financially and secured what remained of the company. Entrepreneur Dudley Docker who was instrumental in creating Metro-Vick had since 1924 been floating the idea of bring not only Wolseley and Morris together but adding Austin to create a company big enough to compete internationally. Herbert was keen, not so Morris and so the suggestion lapsed. Interesting in the foreword to Austin's biography, Miles Thomas, former managing director of Morris, said this of Austin losing out to Morris on the purchase of Wolseley:
"'Pa' did not sulk or moan. He just got on with the job of building the Austin empire until it was big enough, some time after his death, to absorb and digest old rival, the then Nuffield Organisation. Thus was created the British Motor Corporation."
In 1936 he was created Lord Austin. He had died in 1941. In his later years he gave substantially to good causes mainly hospitals and £250,000 to the Rutherford Laboratory in Cambridge.
Further reading:
Z.E. Lambert and R.J. Wyatt, Lord Austin - The Man (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1968)
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