“Englands most generous self-made man”
This is quoted from “This England“; Steve (Cape Cod MINI) sent me a few somewhat old (1970s) copies of this magazine with some interesting, if quirky, articles.
Particularly interesting for MINI owners was an article about William Morris, in some way the god-father of MINI:
When his parents moved to Cowley, Oxford … William joined a local firm to learn the bicycle trade. After some months he asked for a rise – from five shillings to six shillings a week. This being refused, William handed in his notice and began business on his own with a working capital of 4 pounds … Before long he was building his own machines, and one of the front rooms of the Morris house served as a show-room.
Early in the [20th] century, he designed a built a motorcycle around a 2-1/4hp engine … soon after, he was interesting himself in the mechanics of the motor-car, making repairs a speciality.
By 1913 “Morris Garages” had acquired handsome showrooms in Queen St in the heart of Oxford. Morris was the agent of such well-known motor-car makers as Arrol-Johnson, Humber, Singer, Standard and Wolseley. For motor-cycles he held the agencies for Douglas, Enfield, Sumbeam and Triumph.
For some years Morris had been facing a challenge, namely the success of Fords “Tin Lizzies” in England, and he longed to produce an English equivalent. About 1910 he began designing, and the Morris-Oxford was announced at the 1912 Motor Show, the first car being produced by April the next year. It was a masterpiece of engineering … though initial sales were disappointing, as its merits became known, sales began to soar …
In 1919 (after World War I) Morris began again, this time armed with knowledge of Fords methods … within a year he was making thousands of cars. When the slump came in 1921, instead of reducing production, Morris drastically reduced the price of all his models. The gamble paid off, and sales and profits soared … by the middle of [the 1920s] he broke the European manufacturers record by making 53,000 cars in a year.
Here is a picture “The Morris assembly line at Cowley, near Oxford, in 1934”; compare the roof shape (steep glass side to the left, gentler sloping solid side to the right) with this picture of the outside of the MINI buildings (taken on my trip there in 2003):
Some more about William Morris:
In 1934, Morris’ great contribution to the car industry and his generous gifts to the nation were acknowledged by his being raised to the peerage as the first Viscount Nuffield … [he] was a man of great personal magnetism and infectious enthusiasm … staff and the workmen always referred to him as the “Governor” although in the early years he was frequently called “Uncle”. He always treated his staff with scrupulous fairness; he would never dismiss a good employee for making a mistake, even a costly one, arguing that the man would not make the same mistake again, whereas a newcomer might!
M&I / GBMINI 