It might seem a little odd to find a book covering the history of the Austin Motor Company to start by talking about another name in the Automotive industry, but the Austin Motor Company was not Herbert Austins first foray in to the motor industry.
The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company Ltd was founded by Irishman Frederick York Wolseley in Sydney, Australia, in 1887. The then young Herbert Austin (aged 22) joined the Wolseley company, in Australia, in 1888. In 1889 Wolseley formed a new company registered in London and transferred his patent portfolio there. Herbert Austin and Frederick Wolseley returned to England in November 1893 where they moved into a factory in Broad Street, Birmingham. Frederick Wolseley himself resigned in 1894 leaving Herbert Austin with a major influence in the company employed as a works manager.
Shortly after the departure of Frederick Wolseley, Herbert Austin having taken an interest in combustion engines embarked on a project to build the first Wolsely motor car. During the winter of 1895-96 Austin made his own version of a design by Léon Bollée that he had seen in Paris. Unfortunately he later found that another manufacturer had bought the rights to the design preventing Austin from using it. A new design had to be produced and the Wolseley Autocar No. 1 was the result being introduced in 1897. It was a three wheeled design (one front, two rear) featuring independent rear suspension, mid engine and back to back seating for two adults. Unfortunately for Austin it is believed that although being advertised for sale, it was not successful and none were sold. Undeterred by this initial failure, Austin pursued his ambition to get into the motor business and the four wheeled Wolseley "Voiturette" was introduced in 1899.
Despite not having sold any cars to the public, Austins motor division within the Wolsley Shearing Machine Company must have had been thought to have good commercial prospects. Perhaps the Wolsley company was not in a position to finance the development of a motor company or were not willing to take the risk by themselves. In 1901 the motor division was formed in to a separate company "Wolseley Motor Company" with financing from Vickers, a well established metal forge company at the time. This new partnership gave Austin's motor operation access to the resources of Vickers to manufacture metal components needed for the motor business. With the new resources in place the Wolseley Motor Company began selling its first cars to the public. Austin was the general manager of the new company.
Herbert Austin soon left the Wolseley Motor Company in just a little over 4 years. Austin said "I started the Austin Motor Company in 1905 because I disagreed with the Board of Vickers". The disagreement was supposed to be over the merits of the horizontal vs vertical engine. However the dispute on horizontal vs vertical engines was given as the excuse for the disagreement rather than being the primary reason. It is more likely that it was a common situation of a small new start-up with big ideas clashing with the established board of Vickers a scenario that is all too common in industry.
Wolsley went on to the acquire the Siddeley Autocar Company, founder John Davenport Siddeley took charge of the merged company, renaming the marque Wolseley-Siddeley until his resignation in 1910. Wolseley sold upmarket cars, and even opened a lavish showroom, Wolseley House, in Piccadilly (next door to the the Ritz Hotel. However the company faced receivership in October, 1926 and was purchased by William Morris (Morris Motors) and later become part of the BMC and state owned British Leyland company that lead to the end of a variety of famous British names including Austin. Today, the Wolseley trademark is owned by Nanjing Automobile Group supplied as part of the assets of the MG Rover Group. The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company continues to trade today as Wolseley plc, primarily a building supplies company.