Introduction

Morris Motor Company was formed in 1910 when William Morris, a bicycle manufacturer, decided to create a light car. He started a car manufacturing factory at Oxford, UK and introduced the two-seater Morris Oxford Bullnose.

The company’s trademark is currently owned by Chinese automaker SAIC.

In 1914, Morris introduced a coupe and a van but was unable to create a four-seater version since the chassis and engine were too small for the purpose. Eventually, the company started getting supplies from Continental of Detroit, Michigan. In 1915, two-seater and four-seater versions of Morris Cowley were launched.

Due to the unavailability of the Continental engine post war, Morris turned to Hotchkiss, France, for creating a similar engine that was used in the newer versions of Cowley as well as Morris Oxford cars. The company gained popularity with its quality cars and became UK's biggest car manufacturer in 1924.

Meanwhile, Oxford-based Morris sales agency started building sporting versions of the cars under the name MG (Morris Garages).

Leonard Lord became the Managing Director of Morris Motor Company in 1932, but after a tiff he left the company and threatened to ‘take Cowley apart brick by brick’.

In 1936, William Morris sold his commercial vehicle enterprise Morris Commercial Cars Limited to Morris Motors. Two years later, he merged the Morris Motor Company (incorporating Wolseley Motor Company that supplied the 847 cc engine) and MG with Riley (newly acquired) and formed the Nuffield Organisation.

The Nuffield Organisation merged with Austin Motor Company in 1952 to form British Motor Corporation (BMC). The new company went on to become a part of British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) in 1968 that became British Leyland Limited (BL) in 1975.

The Morris marque was used until the early 1980s. The last Morris-badged car was the Morris Ital and its production ended in 1984.