Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin

Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin KBE (8 November 1866 – 23 May 1941) was an English automobile designer and builder who founded the Austin Motor Company. For the majority of his career he was known as Sir Herbert Austin, and the Northfield bypass is called "Sir Herbert Austin Way" after him.

Background and early life

The son of a farmer, he was born in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire in South East England, but the family moved to Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham, Yorkshire in 1870 when his father was appointed farm bailiff. Herbert Austin first went to the village school, later continuing his education at Rotherham Grammar School.

In 1884 he emigrated to Australia, with an uncle on his mother's side, who lived in Melbourne but had recently returned to England on a family visit. They travelled to Australia by ship, via the Cape.

Life in Melbourne

He started work with his uncle who was the works manager at a general engineering firm, Mephan Ferguson, in North Melbourne. Two years later he joined Alex. Cowan & Sons, a Scottish paper business which had an agency for printing equipment and Crossley gas engines. Later he worked for the Langlands Foundry Company Limited in Yarra Bank, Melbourne, which made locomotive boilers, wheels and gold mining equipment.