Formed in 1903 to import French Clément cars into the UK, the British-owned Clément-Talbot concern quickly dropped the Clément name and by 1905 was assembling partly British-made Talbots at its new factory in London.

A wide variety of French-built models continued to be imported but by 1906 the first all-British Talbot had arrived.

Talbot merged with Sunbeam in 1919 and the following year combined with the French Darracq concern to form the Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq (STD) conglomeration.

Confusingly, the products of the Suresnes factory were badged as Talbots in France and Darracq elsewhere, and the former should not be confused with the British-made Talbots designed by Georges Roesch.

Talbot was the most successful division of the Anglo-French STD combine and might well have escaped takeover by Rootes in 1935 had it not been shackled to its weaker partners.

The company's healthy position had been achieved by a succession of well-engineered products penned by its designer, Swiss-born...