The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company was formed in 1901 by the armaments group Vickers, Sons and Maxim, with Herbert Austin, who had designed the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company’s first cars, as managing director. Its first catalogue, for 5hp and 10hp cars, appeared that year. Austin left to found his own company in 1905, and Wolseley went on to become for a while one of Britain’s largest car makers, from works at Adderley Park and, from 1919, Ward End in Birmingham.
Wolseley went into receivership in 1927 and was bought at auction by William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, for £730,000. Under Morris, and from 1952 the British Motor Corporation, Wolseleys became better-trimmed versions of Morris and Austin models, from the 6/80 police car to the Wolseley Hornet version of the Mini, always identified by the illuminated badge on the radiator grille.
The last car to carry the name was the Wolseley version of British Leyland’s wedge-shaped 18-22 series saloon, built from March to October 1975 before the range was renamed Princess.
