From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
Four Wheels Good - Three Wheels Better! In 1909, Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan ('HFS' as he was to become known) designed and built a single seater three-wheeled car. Little did he realise that his three-wheeled creations would become the world's most popular and that the company he created would still be producing sporting cars some 95 years later.
The Morgan story began in 1901 when HFS purchased an Eagle Tandem 8hp three-wheeler. HFS felt he could improve the Eagle and set about doing so. At that time, three wheeled cars were being developed side-by-side with four-wheelers and were very popular in the Light-car and Cycle-car classes.
HFS was well equipped to undertake the task for, although the son of a country clergyman, his parents had given him every assistance in developing his design and mechanical talents. After Marlborough College he attended Crystal Palace Engineering College and having graduated worked as a draughtsman for the Great Western Railway. In 1906 he went into partnership with a friend and opened a garage at Malvern, Worcestershire. Success came quickly and he was able to focus his attentions on producing a three-wheeler car to his own design. The prototype was ready by 1909 and was a single seater with tiller steering. It had a unique form of sliding pillar independent front suspension. This is the same form of suspension which with the addition of rebound springs and shock absorbers is still used on Morgan cars today.
Powered by a Peugeot 7 hp engine the three-wheeler was a success from the start. Its performance was particularly good resulting from its excellent power-to-weight ratio and by the end of 1910, the Morgan Motor Company had been founded to produce two models. Production prototypes of both cars were displayed at the Motor Cycle Show at Olympia where they received great attention but few orders. As a result HFS's partner withdrew from the enterprise and HFS continued alone. Realising that he needed publicity for his cars if he was to stay in business, HFS undertook a programme of motor competition to prove the competitiveness and durability of his creations.
On Boxing Day 1910, HFS entered the first London-Exeter Two Day Trial in a JAP-engined single-seater Morgan, still fitted with tiller steering. His success in winning a Gold Medal ensured that he would receive favourable press coverage and so it proved. Inquiries poured in and, more importantly, orders soon followed. In 1912 the company became the Morgan Motor Company Ltd and made a significant profit of more than £1,200. Feeling sufficiently secure in his future, HFS married Ruth Day who was to play a significant and forceful role in the development of the company. Initially, however, her most important role was that of 'bouncer' on the steep sections that were part of the Trials in which HFS competed with his cars to gain publicity.
Morgan's proved popular in Ireland where Trials were a popular form of motor sport. Three-wheeler Morgan's began to appear in the results of Irish Trials from as early as 1913 and could always be depended upon to give a good account of themselves.
Today, the Morgan name lives on in the form of the 4-wheeled sporting models with which the company's name is now most readily identified, but to capture the real spirit of Morgan, nothing, but nothing, compares to a fast drive in a 3-wheeler Morgan - HFS's finest creation.