General Manager of the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company, Herbert Austin set the Birmingham firm on the road to motor manufacture in 1896 when he designed its first automobile, a twin-cylinder tri-car.

The first production Wolseley though, was four-wheeled and, like Austin’s 1896 prototype, carried its single-cylinder engine horizontally.

Wolseley’s directors did not share Austin’s belief in the horizontal engine’s virtues however, and he departed in 1905 to set up his own company at nearby Longbridge.

Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, the first Austin cars were powered by conventional inline fours with side valves arranged in ‘T-head’ fashion.

During The Great War, Austin manufactured munitions and expanded greatly as a result, employing more than 22,000 workers by the cessation of hostilities in 1918.

When civilian production recommenced it was with a single 20hp model, influenced by the six-cylinder Hudson – one of America’s most advanced designs – that Herbert Austin has ...