Friday 23rd May 1941
The English car designer and builder who founded the Austin Motor Company, Herbert Austin KBE (74), died after a heart attack. In 1893 he become General Manager of the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company, where he indulged his interest in the design of a horseless motor vehicle and in 1896 exhibited an experimental motor vehicle at Crystal Palace, while his third car design won a silver medal in the 1000 miles trial in 1900. By 1905, he left Wolseley to found the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge, Birmingham. The Austin Motor Company’s most successful product was the Austin Seven, introduced in 1922. He was knighted in 1914 and was Conservative MP for Kings Norton, Birmingham from 1918 to 1924.