Austin Motor Company

The Austin Motor Company was a British manufacturer of cars and lorries based at Longbridge Works in Birmingham. Grace's Guide records that Herbert Austin left the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Co and founded the company in 1905, that it bought the former White and Pike factory at Longbridge in January 1906, and that it produced its first car under the Austin name that year. It became a private limited company in 1907 and a public company in 1914. During the First World War it turned its resources to the war effort, and by the end of the war it had produced around eight million shells, 2,000 aeroplanes and large numbers of lorries and armoured cars. After a receivership in 1921 the company was re-formed in 1922 and launched the Baby Austin, which helped make it the largest car factory in the UK. In February 1952 it merged with the Nuffield Organisation to form the British Motor Corporation.