John Davenport Siddeley was without doubt one of the most successful of those entrepreneurial motoring pioneers. Siddeley was a master at assimilating the ideas of others, building on them and then producing a thoroughly individual product of his own. Siddeley's business empire resembled that of Rolls-Royce - both companies diversified into the aeronautical business and both had car-making and aero businesses complementing each other. Whilst it is fair to say that the aeronautical elements of both companies predominated, the car sections were more directly in the public eye, and, in times of peace, carried them through the depression years.

It is not surprising then that Armstrong Siddeley Motors became a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce's aero-engine empire. In many ways, Armstrong Siddeley was responsible for creating a legend of excellence, which became the true inheritance of Rolls-Royce. Through that inheritance we can appreciate Armstrong Siddeley's legacy.

It began with the birth of J D Siddeley in 1866. In his mid-twenties Siddeley became involved with the new bicycle industry, and was employed by the Humber Cycle Co., ostensibly as a draughtsman, but acting as manager of the cycle-racing department. In 1893 Siddeley was offered a post with Harvey Du Cros at the Pneumatic Tyre Company (later in 1898 to become the Dunlop Tyre Co.) and Siddeley first worked in Ireland and then in England. When the company became Dunlop, Siddeley's streak of independence emerged, and, a true entrepreneur, he set up his rival Clipper Tyre company just around the corner in Coventry. The company manufactured tyres under license from the Continental Caoutchouc and Gutterpercha Co. of Hanover, Germany (now known as the Continental Tyre Co.). Siddeley must have been well aware of the litigation over the Dunlop patents, for Continental had patented their own pattern of tyre, thus avoiding the dispute with the Dunlop patents.

One way Siddeley marketed this product was to arrange a cycle ride from John O'Groats to Lands End in 1898 on a specially lightened Humber racing cycle on Clipper pneumatic tyres ridden by a well known racing cyclist. The principle of such an exhaustive test, carried out in the public gaze, was set - and was to be repeated throughout the J D Siddeley era, evolving through the Autocar/Motor road tests and overseas endurance trips.

Having started manufacturing tyres for motor vehicles Siddeley searched for a suitable test of their reliability, again in public. The opportunity to do so appeared in the shape of the 1,000 miles reliability trial of 1900 organised by the Automobile Club of Great Britain (later The Royal Automobile Club). Siddeley entered two British-made Daimler Parisian 6hp cars - one driven by himself, rally number A30 - which completed the entire trial without a puncture. A second Daimler, fitted with Clipper Tyres, was driven by the Hon. John Scott Montagu, and the event attracted many British motoring pioneers, including C S Rolls, Harvey Du Cros, and S F Edge.

After this, Siddeley became an avowed Automobilist winning a trophy at the Spion Kop Hill climb of 1901 in a Daimler. In 1902, he became an importer of Peugeot cars, importing the mechanical parts and assembling them complete with English bodies in Coventry and marketing them as Siddeley Autocars. These vehicles were displayed at the Crystal Palace Exhibitions of 1902 and 1903. This wide range of vehicles included a 6hp single cylinder car, two 8 ½ hp twin-cylinder cars, one 12-16hp four cylinder car and one 18-24hp car. Advertising at this time was mainly photographic with a measure of retouching.

The next development was to manufacture components in Britain to Siddeley's own designs. This was undertaken by Vickers Son and Maxim, assembling parts (manufactured by the Wolseley Tool and Motor Co. of Adderley Park Birmingham) at the Maxim factory at Crayford in Kent.

One product of this development was the 1904 Siddeley known as the "Green Goddess". The curved and slightly pointed radiator shell was to become the characteristic of the Wolseley radiator until the late twenties.

In 1905, Wolseley merged with Siddeley Autocar to form the Wolseley-Siddeley Motor Co. Siddeley became Sales Manager, then Works Manager when Herbert Austin resigned in 1906. An immediate response was to produce a Wolseley-Siddeley logo in "Art Nouveau" style in the company's advertising material. The name Siddeley Autocar became more and more prominent, Siddeley even being featured in his bowler hat in an advertisement for a car in an exhaustive trial.

When Tom Vickers died in 1908, his brother Albert took over and immediately pressed for a new approach to running the business, demanding a dividend for investors. As a result, less money was ploughed back into expansion and Siddeley resigned along with his main backer, Lionel de Rothschild and most of the design team. Wolseley, a great Edwardian company, then a serious rival to Rolls-Royce and Daimler, declined and was later to be absorbed into the Morris empire.

The Deasy Motor Car Manufacturing Company was formed in February 1906 by Captain Henry Hugh Peter Deasy. Born in Dublin in 1866, Deasy joined the army in 1888 and retired in 1897. He won The Royal Geographical Society Gold Medal in 1900 for surveying nearly 40,000 square miles of the Himalayas. Deasy, like Siddeley, was an entrepreneur, and in 1903 helped promote the Rochet Schneider Company by driving a car from London to Glasgow non-stop. He also drove a Martini car up a mountain rock railway near Montreaux, Switzerland.

At this time H H P Deasy and Co., was formed to import both Rochet-Schneider and Martini cars into the UK. The Deasy Motor Co. took over the factory used by the old Iden Car Co. at Parkside, Coventry. The vehicle designer was Edmund Lewis of Rover and Daimler fame. From the outset Deasy and Lewis were at loggerheads over the way things should progress, the main problem being the lack of urgency in getting vehicles to customers. There was no doubt that the company was undercapitalised and paying the wages on a Friday was always difficult. Nearly all the components in the vehicles were bought in, but the machining was of indifferent quality and much re-working was required, smoothness being at first sacrificed for expediency. Deasy became increasingly frustrated with this state of things and resigned on 9th March 1908. Lewis was relegated to Consulting Engineer.

In 1909, J D Siddeley took over as General Manager of the Deasy Motor Co. later becoming Managing Director. Old designs were carried over until new designs could be constructed. New cars were marketed as JDS-Type Deasys, because the Siddeley name was subject to legal proceedings between Deasy and Wolseley. This was resolved by 1912 and Siddeley was then allowed to use the name Siddeley-Deasy freely.

The Deasy car disclosed Deasy's Irish heritage. The top part of the radiator shell was based on the shamrock showing the outline of the shamrock-shaped radiator with an intertwined "DC" for Deasy with the name underneath. This remained until 1912 when the logo became an entwined "SD" in a circle.

In November 1913, the Sphinx made its first appearance. Before manufacturing new models, a Renault was bought in and minutely examined in the factory. The resulting JDS type-Deasys had a scuttle-mounted radiator and a coffin shaped bonnet. Local wags called the vehicle a coffin on wheels. Siddeley was not amused, but when a journalist described the car in 1912 as "quiet and inscrutable as the sphinx" alluding to the curious bonnet style and the "Silent-Knight" sleeve-valve engine, Siddeley saw an opportunity and the Sphinx became both logo and mascot, continuing until 1960.

Various engines were used including Aster, Daimler and the Daimler-built Knight sleeve-valve. At one point, one model had a Rover 12hp chassis. A wide range of chassis and engine sizes were available up to 1914. One car planned for 1914 but not built was a 30hp car with a bi-block six-cylinder engine of 4960cc.

When the Great War started in August 1914, Siddeley Deasy was a successful medium-range car builder, then things changed dramatically. By the end of the war the company's workforce had increased tenfold, from 500 to 5,000. With patriotic fervour, Siddeley encouraged the workforce to enlist. Not long after, with substantial orders for lorries, ambulances and staff-cars, he reversed this policy.

In 1915, Siddeley persuaded his board of directors to invest in tools and expand to produce airframes and aero engines. Airframes were built for the RE7 and RE8 Aero engines, including the V8 RAF 1 A and the air-cooled V1 2 RAF 4A. The development work then began on a six-cylinder in-line water-cooled BHP aero-engine. To achieve maximum reliability Siddeley had to completely re-design this engine, which was developed into the Siddeley-Deasy Puma engine. Over 6,000 were built. Pressures to produce this engine for the DH9 bomber resulted in production commencing at too early a stage in development and it proved underpowered. However, it was quite satisfactory for post-war use.

After the war there was a shortage of materials. To ensure adequate supplies of steel, Siddeley Deasy merged with the Sir W G Armstrong's Whitworth company. Siddeley became Managing Director of Armstrong Siddeley Motors, but was not on the main board of Armstrong Whitworth Development Co.

The first car manufactured by this new company was the 30hp. This was none other than the 4960cc bi-block six designed as a Siddeley Deasy in 1914. Changes to the car at this stage included a V-fronted radiator, believed to have been revamped by the renowned automotive artist Frederick Gordon Crosby. A little earlier the company was said to have imported a Marmon car from the USA, stripping down the vehicle to its component parts. Ernest Siddeley when asked, said it was not dismantled in the Billiard room, (they did not have one), but Ernest did visit the Marmon factory in the USA in 1919 and was more than aware of American advances in car manufacturing.

The 30hp was sold to the European aristocracy and was popular with the bespoke carriage trade. One loyal patron was the then Duke of York, who owned at least six different examples before he became King George VI, the first of which was a 30hp which he went to the factory to collect.

The 18hp was introduced in 1921. This was a 2,318cc scaled down version of the 30hp. A Connaught-bodied 18hp, which weighed in at two tons, was also sold to The Duke of York. In a letter, his Royal Highness complained that the car was rather sluggish. It was suggested he put the body on a 30hp chassis. It is often very difficult to tell from advertisements and photographs which model was which, as both were large vehicles. In April 1923, a 30hp Pullman Limousine was built as the honeymoon car for the wedding of the Duke of York and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. The company's advertising capitalised on this with views of regal cars in Royal parks.

In 1923, the 14hp four-cylinder model was introduced, a small Armstrong Siddeley, it was a medium-sized car by anyone else's standards. Over 14,000 were built over six years and many of these were exported. This robust model was certainly the most numerous of the company's output during the vintage era and, with its flat radiator and high clearance, it proved very popular in rugged terrain.

Early in the 1920s, W G McMinnies took over the job as publicist for Armstrong Siddeley Motors. He then composed a series of slogans that emphasised the quality of the product. Examples of these included: "Finest value in every class", "Can you stop?" (advertising four-wheel brakes) "Reputation-raise the bonnet", "My lady must ride in a beautiful carriage", "Travel in comfort in the blue train of the roadway" and "You cannot buy a better car". This form of hyperbole tended to reinforce the truth rather than hide it, as the product justified all the claims.

In October 1925, the MkII models were introduced with 14hp 18hp and 30hp chassis. The two smaller cars were given new chassis layouts, four-wheel brakes became standard and the 30hp went from a biblock to a monoblock engine. In 1927, a 15hp model was introduced. This ran alongside the 14hp model and was similar in design except for a six-cylinder side-valve engine, but developed into a totally different vehicle. In 1928, the Wilson-Epicyclical fluid flywheel drive was introduced. This semi-automatic gearbox was a great improvement on the crash box of the day, and was part of a new trend in semi-automatic transmissions.

In 1931, the V-radiator was introduced on the 15hp and by 1932 on the 12hp. The 12hp had been introduced in 1928 as a fabric-bodied saloon based on the Riley Monaco. In 1931, its engine was enlarged to 1434cc side valve six. The 1930s Armstrong-Siddeley house style was established throughout the range, and changed only in detail prior to the Second World War.

In 1932, a "new" 20hp chassis was introduced with Sports, Saloon, Limousine, Coach Saloon and Tourer bodystyles. With a new chassis layout and an uprated engine, this car had a good performance. Three short chassis Rally tourers won Glacier Cups in the 1932 Alpine Trial and their Wilson gearboxes were of great interest. At the 1933 Motor Show, the Siddeley Special was introduced as a replacement for the old 30hp, with the same cubic capacity of 4960cc. The engine was largely of aluminium alloy and as a result it was capable of 100mph in tourer form - and much was made of Malcolm Campbell's ownership of one in the company's advertising. It was also available in a variety of proprietary coachwork styles.

Armstrong Siddeley entered the Rainbow Cars in the 1934 RAC Rally, a team of twelve vehicles painted in all the colours of the rainbow, including three short chassis Sports Tourers, one of which was driven by Cyril Siddeley. The 12hp coups chassis was marketed for "The Daughters of Gentlemen", a successful ploy as at least a third of this model's production run was sold to women!

In 1935, the 12 plus 20/25hp and 17hp models were introduced. These were up-rated versions of the 12hp, 20hp and 15hp respectively. In 1936, a new Jaguar-influenced body style was introduced, the "Atlanta". In 1937, Balanced-Drive, an amalgamation of the Wilson gearbox and the Newton clutch, both inventions of Walter Wilson, was introduced, and improved overall performance. In 1938, the 16hp was introduced and this was later used as the basis for the postwar models. The new unitary-constructed chassis had a low centre of gravity and a 1900cc engine, which was uprated by Harry Westlake, had good roadholding and plenty of power, which could out-accelerate many post-war sports cars.

All the aero companies constructed 'Shadow Factories' during the 1930s and geared up for war. Armstrong Siddeley produced nearly 30,000 Cheetah aircraft engines, thousands of tank gearboxes, thousands of torpedo engines and gyroscopes and the Whitley bomber. It also undertook development of the Deerhound engine and was a subcontractor working on Merlin engines, Lancaster cockpits and bomb doors. Wartime advertising showed great pride in the company's war effort. This was at a price, and the people of Coventry witnessed the near total destruction of their ancient city. Their fortitude was an inspiration to others.

Early in 1945, a series of advertisements appeared showing wartime products with a strange new sphinx mascot. This mascot appeared on the new Armstrong Siddeley products and the names of aeroplanes became the names of the cars.

In 1945, on VE Day, Armstrong Siddeley launched the Hurricane and Lancaster models. Both were advertised with pictures of their aircraft counterparts. The engine was a postwar version of the pre-war 16hp. To an austere post-war world with a Labour Government this transatlantic-styled vehicle was a novelty, being a truly new design.

The Typhoon was introduced by mid-1946 as an addition to the saloon range. This interim model was initiated in a hurry by Walter Henley, then Head of Development, to fill the gap left by the inability of Mulliners, the company's coachbuilders, to produce enough Lancaster bodies to satisfy demand.

In 1949 the 16hp was uprated and became the 2309cc 18hp and the Typhoon was phased out in favour of the four-door razor-edged Whitley Saloon. Also introduced was the Station coupe and the Utility coupe. Both sold well overseas, especially in Australia, where such utility vehicles originated.

A long chassis limousine was introduced in 1950, though only 125 were built over the two years to 1952. This range was well advertised, many advertisements featuring outdoor views with the various models and some creative artworks including colour layouts by illustrators such as Frank Wooton and Roy Knockolds.

In October 1952, the 3.4 litre Sapphire Six was introduced. The Sapphire 346 (as it later became) was a roomy saloon, capable of 90mph, or 100mph with twin carburettors. The car was marketed to the luxury-professional end of the market priced GBP 1,728 3s 4d. The Motor Show advertisement showed wealthy and stylish customers. Another advertisement featured a car used at the 1953 Coronation, drawn by Noel McViegh. This was an early view of the four-light model.

The 346 was the mainstay of the Armstrong Siddeley range from 1953 to 1958. It could be supplied with pre-selector, synchromesh or automatic gearbox (1954) servo brakes (1954) and twin-carburettors (1954). In 1954, a limousine chassis was introduced, the wheelbase increased from 9' 6" to 11' 1", seating five in the rear and supplied with pre-selector transmission. Overall length was 17' 8", width 5' 11" and height 5' 8 ½". This car was advertised as a glamorous town carriage, with great style and charm; and was a favourite of company directors, film stars, politicians and professional people world-wide. It certainly lived up to the promise of its advertising.

In 1955, the 234 and 236 Sapphire models were introduced to rival to the 2.4 litre Jaguar. Unfortunately, they only sold in small numbers. This was because they had a very square stable base, which gave excellent roadholding, but gave the car a lumpy appearance. At a later date, the roofline was raised giving the car a bulbous shape, which compared badly with the smooth lines of Bill Lyons' Jaguar. Behind the wheel this car redeemed itself and how! The very smooth (but fast) 234 had the speed of a Jaguar and owners were happy to demonstrate this. The six-cylinder variant the 236 was less spirited, but even smoother and was a comfortable touring car. Both models have a loyal following amongst those fortunate to own survivors. One fine advertisement showed a double picture of the 234 and 236, both with attendant aircraft drawn by artist Terence Cuneo. Many advertisements were photographic and totally true to the shape of the car.

The final production car was the Star Sapphire, often advertised in a luxurious colour format, very much in keeping with the car's appearance, and appearing in stylised action photography. It is difficult from the advertising to guess that the company had already decided to phase out car production.

Under the bonnet the Star had a 3,990cc engine with a 97mm bore, capable of a genuine 100mph performance. The Star was portrayed as a more powerful and smoother version of the 346. This was a luxurious car and was advertised as such, it seemed as English as a thatched cottage in a way that was gloriously understated. It was more comfortable and roomier than the 346 with a lavishly equipped interior. There was an equally well-appointed limousine available on a longer chassis. This swan song lasted from 1958 to 1960. In 1960 car production ceased with the Mk2 Star at the prototype stage. The Mk3 was similar in appearance to what became the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, but sadly it was never to be.

The company kept its promise to maintain a spares service for ten years, and in 1972 Rolls-Royce looked around for a potential purchaser. At this stage the Armstrong Siddeley Owners Club stepped in.

Armstrong Siddeley cars were portrayed as a luxury car for professional people which was always elegant and stately with a fair turn of speed - a well engineered, very safe vehicle with a sumptuous interior, it was not out of place in urban or rural Britain. The cars weaved their spell and became part of the fabric of British society.

Those who wish to join the Armstrong Siddeley Owners Club should write to:

Peter Sheppard,
Membership Secretary,
57 Berberry Close,
Birmingham B30 lTB.

Bibliography :

Advertising Armstrong Siddeley 1904 –1960, by Bill Smith and Daniel Young; Yesteryear Books, 1996
Armstrong-Siddeley, the Parkside Story, by Ray Cook; Rolls Royce Heritage Trust, Darby 1988
Armstrong-Siddeley, The Post War Cars, by Robert Pen Bradley; Motor Racing Publications, 1989
John Davenport Siddeley, by Grahame Orme-Bannister; Automotive History Review, 1999