WOLSELEY MOTORS LIMITED

Austin had been searching for other products for WSSMC because sale of sheep-shearing machinery was a highly seasonal trade. About 1895–96 he became interested in engines and automobiles. During the winter of 1895–96, working in his own time at nights and weekends, he made his own version of a design by Léon Bollée that he had seen in Paris. In 1895, a tricycle with two seats in a back-to-back configuration (dos-à-dos) was developed. It was presented in 1896. The front wheels were steered by a lever. The two-cylinder motor made of cast steel was mounted on the side of an aluminum frame and drove the single rear wheel. An image of the vehicle can be seen on page 24  of the visit report of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers from July 28, 1910. Later he found that another British group had bought the rights and he had to come up with a design of his own, having persuaded the directors of WSSMC to invest in the necessary machinery.

In 1897 Austin's second Wolseley car, the Wolseley Autocar No. 1 was revealed. It was a three-wheeled design (one front, two rear) featuring independent rear suspension, mid-engine and back to back seating for two adults. It was not successful and although advertised for sale, none were sold. The third Wolseley car, the four-wheeled Wolseley "Voiturette" followed in 1899. A further four-wheeled car was made in 1900. The 1901 Wolseley Gasoline Carriage featured a steering wheel instead of a tiller. The first Wolseley cars sold to the public were based on the "Voiturette", but production did not get underway until 1901, by which time the board of WSSMC had lost interest in the nascent motor industry.

Thomas and Albert Vickers, directors of Vickers and Maxim, Britain's largest armaments manufacturer, had much earlier decided to enter the industry at the right moment and, impressed by Austin's achievements at WSSMC, they took on his enterprise. When Austin's five-year contract officially ended in 1906 they had made more than 1,500 cars. Wolseley was the largest British motor manufacturer and Austin's reputation was made.

The company had been formed in March 1901. By 1 May 1901 Austin had issued his first catalogue. There were to be two models, 5 hp and 10 hp. They were both available with either a Tonneau or a Phaeton body with either pneumatic or solid tyres. For an additional outlay of thirty shillings (£1.50) the 10 hp model would be fitted with a sprag to prevent it running backwards. "We recommend pneumatic tyres for all cars required to run over twenty miles an hour." Austin then provided a paragraph as to why his horizontal engines were better lubricated (than vertical engines) and that 750 rpm, the speed of his Wolseley engines, avoided the short life of competing engines that ran between 1,000 and 2,000 rpm."

The association with Vickers not only helped in general design but in the speed of production and provision of special steels

The Wolseley range from 1901 to 1905.

Engines were horizontal which kept the centre of gravity low. Cylinders were cast individually and arranged either singly, in a pair or in two pairs which were horizontally opposed. The crankshaft lay across the car allowing a simple belt or chain-drive to the rear axle:

• 5 hp, 6 hp from 1904
• 7½ hp, 8 hp from 1904
• 10 hp, 12 hp from 1904
• from 1904 16 hp
• 20 hp, 24 hp  from 1904

in 1904 Queen Alexandra bought a 5.2-litre 24 hp landaulette with coil ignition, a four-speed gearbox and chain drive.

John Siddeley (1st Baron Kenilworth) founded his Siddeley Autocar Company in 1902 to manufacture cars to Peugeot designs. He had Peugeot-based demonstration cars at the Crystal Palace in 1903. By 1905, the company had a dozen models for sale and some of them were built for him at Vickers' Crayford, Kent factory.

During 1905 Wolseley—which then dominated the UK car market—purchased the goodwill and patent rights of his Siddeley Autocar Company business and appointed Siddeley London sales manager of Herbert Austin's The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company Limited owned by Vickers, Sons and Maxim. A few months later Herbert Austin left Wolseley to found his own Austin Motor Company due to resolute refusal to countenance new vertical engines for his Wolseleys, whatever his directors might wish. Austin handed in his resignation the year before his contract ended. and Siddeley was appointed manager of Wolseley in his place and, without authority, added Siddeley to the badge on the Wolseley cars.

Siddeley, on his appointment to Austin's former position, promptly replaced Austin's horizontal engines with the now conventional upright engines. With him he brought his associate Lionel de Rothschild as a member of the Wolseley board. Together they gave the business a new lease of life. At the November 1905 Olympia Motor Show, the first at the former National Agricultural Hall, two small 6 hp and 8 hp cars were still exhibited with horizontal engines but there were also Siddeley's new 15, 18 and 32 hp cars with vertical engines. This switch to vertical engines brought Wolseley a great deal of publicity and their products soon lost their old-fashioned image.

However a tendency then arose for journalists to follow the company's full-page display advertising and drop the first word in Wolseley Siddeley — "Siddeley Autocars made by (in smaller typeface) the Wolseley Tool . . ." Certainly it was true the new engines were named Siddeley engines. Meanwhile, under Siddeley Wolseley maintained the sales lead left to him by Austin but, now run from London, not (Austin's base) Birmingham, the whole business failed to cover overheads. A board member, Walter Chetwynd, was set to find a solution. It was decided the business operated from too many different locations. First the board closed the Crayford Kent works, moving the whole operation back to Birmingham and dropping production of commercial vehicles and taxicabs – a large number of which, 500+, were made during Siddeley's time including an early 10 hp taxicab made in 1908 sold to a Mr W R Morris of Holywell St. Oxford who ran a garage and hire car business there, as well as making bicycles. Then the London head office followed. After some heated discussions Siddeley resigned in the spring of 1909 and Rothschild went, too.

He resigned from Wolseley in 1909 to go into partnership with H P P Deasy and manage the Deasy Motor Company, also of Coventry.

Ernest Hopwood was appointed managing director in August 1909.

Wolsit Officine Legnanesi Autmobili was incorporated in 1907 by Macchi Brothers and the Bank of Legnano to build Wolseley cars under licence in Legnano, about 18 kilometres north-west of central Milan. A similar enterprise, Fial, had started there a year earlier but failed in 1908. Wolsit automobile production ended in 1909, the business continued but made luxury bicycles. Emilio Bozzi made the Ciclomotore Wolsit from 1910 to 1914. A team of Wolsit cars competed in motoring events in 1907.

The Wolseley range in 1909:

• 12/16 hp
• 16/20 hp
• 20/24 hp
• 24/30 hp

• 30/34 hp
• 40 hp
• 40/50 hp
• 60 hp

After 1911 the name on the cars was again just Wolseley.

Chetwynd's recommendations soon led to a revival in profits and a rapid expansion of Wolseley's business. The Adderley Park factory was greatly extended in 1912. These extensions were opened in 1914 but there was not sufficient space for the new Stellite model which was instead produced and marketed by another Vickers subsidiary, Electric and Ordnance Accessories Company Limited.

Wolseley was not then as specialised in its operations as members of the motor industry were to become. For other members of the Vickers group they were general engineers and they also handled engineering enquiries directed on to them by other group members. Wolseley built double-decker buses for the Birmingham Corporation. They also built many specials such as electric lighting sets and motor boat engines – catalogued sizes were from 12 hp to 250 hp with up to twelve cylinders and complete with gearboxes. Fire engines too and special War Office vehicles being a subsidiary of a major armaments firm. As befits a company with tool in its name they built machine tools including turret lathes and horizontal borers though chiefly for their own use or for group members. Large engines were made to power petrol-electric railcars, such as those used by the North-Eastern Railway Company in 1904, and still larger engines were made for the Delaware and Hudson railroad. In 1905 they also offered petrol narrow-gauge railway locomotives.

The amazing Brennan mono-rail truck which gave rides at the Japan–British Exhibition at Shepherd's Bush in 1910, used a 20HP engine manufactured by the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car company to power the gyroscopic stabilisation and an 80HP Wolseley engine for the petrol-electric propulsion of the 22 ton vehicle.

While at first Wolseley supplied engines for launches, made for them by Teddington Launch Works, they moved on to small river craft and light coasting boats. The demand for engines for larger vessels grew. It was not uncommon for orders to be booked for 70-foot (21 m) yachts, racing launches and ferry boats to carry fifty or more passengers. These were manufactured by S E Saunders Limited at Cowes, Isle of Wight. Special engines were made for lifeboats. In 1906 horizontal engines of sixteen cylinders were designed and constructed for British submarines. They were designed to run at a low speed. High efficiency V8 engines were made for hydroplanes as well as straight eights to run on petrol or paraffin. Weight was very important and these engines were of advanced design. The airship Mayfly was fitted with Wolseley engines.

A Ferdinand de Baeder (1865–1944), Belgian holder of Aviator's certificate No. 107, won Prix des Pilots, Prix des Arts et Metiers, Coupe Archdeacon, Prix Capitaine Berger at Châlons-en-Champagne in his Wolseley-engined Voisin biplane on 30 December 1909. By the summer of 1910 Wolseley were able to supply the following specially designed water-cooled aero-engines:

• 30 hp 4-cylinder, bore and stroke: 3¾ x 5½ inches, displacement 5.85 litres
• 60 hp V8-cylinder, bore and stroke: 3¾ x 5½ inches, displacement 11.7 litres.
• They were soon followed by a 120 hp version

• 
  16-20 hp 1912
 
• 
  24-30 Colonial model 1912
 
• 
  Antarctic November 1911
 
• 
  360 hp 12-cylinder marine engine

Caterpillar tracked tractors were designed and supplied to Robert Falcon Scott for his ill-fated second expedition to the Antarctic. Orders were also received for use by the Deutsche Antarktische Expedition.

In 1914 Wolseley produced a two-wheeled gyroscopically balanced car for the Russian lawyer and inventor Count Pyotr Shilovsky. This resembled a huge motorcycle surmounted by a car body, but with the ability to balance when stationary due to the gyroscopic stabilisation mechanism. It made a number of demonstration runs, but unfortunately with the onset of war it was put to one side. It was discovered again in 1938 when workmen uncovered its well preserved remains in the Ward End property of Wolseley. It was then transferred into the Wolseley Museum.

• 
  Schilowsky's gyrocar

From 1912 lorries and other commercial vehicles were supplied. Until the outbreak of war in 1914 Wolseley offered six types of commercial vehicle from 12 cwt delivery van to a five-ton lorry with a 40 hp engine.

By 1913 Wolseley was Britain's largest car manufacturer selling 3,000 cars. The company was renamed Wolseley Motors Limited in 1914.
It also began operations in Montreal and Toronto as Wolseley Motors Limited. This became British and American Motors after the First World War. In January 1914 the chairman, Sir Vincent Caillard, told shareholders they owned probably the largest motor-car producing company in the country and that its factory floor space now exceeded 17 acres.

Entering wartime as Britain's largest car manufacturer Wolseley initially contracted to provide cars for staff officers and ambulances. Government soon indicated their plant might be better used for supplies more urgently needed. Postwar the chairman, Sir Vincent Caillard, was able to report Wolseley had provided, quantities are approximate:

• 3,600 motorcars and lorries including the equivalent in spare parts
• 4,900 aeronautical engines including the equivalent in spare parts
• 760 aeroplanes
• 600 sets aeroplane spare wings and tailplanes
• 6,000 airscrews of various types
• Director firing gear for 27 battleships, 56 cruisers and 160 flotilla leaders and destroyers
• 1,200 naval gun mountings and sights
• 10 transmission mechanisms for rigid airships
• 2,650,000 18-pounder shells
• 300,000 Stokes's bombs

Aero engines produced in wartime included:

• Renault eight and twelve-cylinder Vee-type
• "Maybach" six-cylinder water-cooled 180 hp developed from a Maybach Zeppelin engine
• The Dragonfly nine-cylinder air-cooled radial
• Boucier fourteen-cylinder air-cooled radial
• Hispano designed V8 known as the Viper. By 1918 sixty of these engine were being produced each week
• Airship engines for the British Admiralty

The Scottish Horse Mounted Brigade's Field Ambulance developed an operating car, designed by Colonel H. Wade in 1914, which enclosed an operating table, sterilisers, full kit of instruments and surgical equipment, wire netting, rope, axes and electric lighting in a Wolseley car chassis. This operating car was employed during the Gallipoli Campaign at Suvla, in the Libyan Desert (during the Senussi Campaign) and at Kantara in Egypt, before being attached to the Desert Mounted Corps Operating Unit in 1917. Subsequently, taking part in the Southern Palestine Offensive, which culminated in the Capture of Jerusalem.

In 1918, Wolseley began a joint venture in Tokyo, with Ishikawajima Ship Building and Engineering. The first Japanese-built Wolseley car rolled off the line in 1922. After World War II the Japan venture was reorganized, renaming itself Isuzu in 1949.

Thomas Vickers died in 1915, and Albert Vickers in 1919, both having reached their eighties. During the war, Wolseley's manufacturing capacity had rapidly developed and expanded. Immediately postwar, the Vickers directors decided to manufacture cars in large quantities at relatively cheap prices. Demand was good. They would borrow money, purchase the whole Ward End site and further expand Wolseley's works. Vickers also decided to consolidate their motor car interests in one company. Wolseley accordingly purchased from within the Vickers group: Electric and Ordnance Accessories Company Limited, the Motor-Car (Stellite Car)  Ordnance Department and the Timken Bearing Department and announced Wolseley's future car programme would be:

1. 10 hp four-cylinder two or three-seater touring car based on the Wolseley designed Stellite car

2. 15 hp four-cylinder four-seater touring car

3. 20 hp six-cylinder chassis to be fitted with a variety of the best types of carriage work

Examples of all these models were exhibited at the Olympia Show in November 1919. The design of the 10 hp and 15 hp engines closely followed their wartime Hispano aero engine using an overhead camshaft. The public considered the 15 hp was too innovative and a new "14 hp" car using the same engine was hastily created to fill the gap.

Wolseley duly took over the Ward End, Birmingham munitions factory from Vickers in 1919 and purchased a site for a new showroom and offices in London's Piccadilly by the Ritz Hotel. Over £250,000 was spent on the magnificent new building, Wolseley House. This was more than double their profits for 1919, when rewarding government contracts were still running. Those contracts ended. The government then brought in a special tax on "excess wartime profits". There was a moulders' strike from December 1919 to April 1920, but in spite of that it was decided to continue the manufacture of other parts. Then a short, sharp general trade slump peaked in July 1920 and almost every order Wolseley had on its books was cancelled. In 1920 Wolseley had reported a loss of £83,000. The following years showed even greater losses. Next, in October 1922, W R Morris startled the whole motor industry by a substantial reduction in the price of his cars. In 1924, Wolseley's annual loss would reach £364,000.

Ernest Hopwood had been appointed Managing Director in August 1909 following Siddeley's departure. He had resigned late in 1919 due to ill-health. A J McCormack who had been joint MD with Hopwood since 1911 resigned in November 1923 and was replaced by a committee of management. Then, at the end of October 1926, it was disclosed the company was bankrupt "to the tune of £2 million" and Sir Gilbert Garnsey and T W Horton had been appointed joint receivers and managers. It was described as "one of the most spectacular failures in the early history of the motor industry".