Acquisition by BSA
Under an agreement dated 22 September 1910[17] the shareholders of The Daimler Motor Company Limited "merged their holdings with those of the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) group of companies," receiving five BSA shares in exchange for four ordinary Daimler shares and £1 5s plus accrued dividend for each £1 preference share. This deal was engineered by Dudley Docker, deputy-chairman of BSA, who was famous for previous successful business mergers.
Daimler, a manufacturer of motor vehicles, had a payroll of 4,116 workmen and 418 staff immediately before the merger. BSA produced rifles, ammunition, military vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles and some BSA-branded cars. The chairman of the combined group was Edward Manville, who had been chairman of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders – founded by Simms – since 1907.
However the merger was not a great success. By 1913 Daimler had a workforce of 5,000 workers which made only 1,000 vehicles a year. In 1913, the following chassis were offered: 15 HP, 20 HP, 26 HP, 30 HP, 38 HP and Special Types. The 15 HP had a four-cylinder engine with 2614 cc, a bore of 80 mm, and a stroke of 130 mm. The wheelbase was 3137 mm. The 20 HP had a four-cylinder engine with 3308 cc, a bore of 90 mm, and a stroke of 130 mm. The wheelbase was 3137 mm. The 26 HP had a four-cylinder engine with 4531 cc, a bore of 101.5 mm, and a stroke of 140 mm. The wheelbase was 3353 mm. The 30 HP had a six-cylinder engine with 4962 cc, a bore of 90 mm, and a stroke of 130 mm. The wheelbase was 3518 mm. The 38 HP had a four-cylinder engine with 6280 cc, a bore of 124 mm, and a stroke of 130 mm. The wheelbase was 3353 mm. The Special had a six-cylinder engine with 6797 cc, a bore of 101.5 mm, and a stroke of 140 mm. The wheelbase was 3632 mm.[18][19][20] The C1-35 HP from 1916 had a six-cylinder engine with 5764 cc, a bore of 97 mm, and a stroke of 130 mm. The wheelbase was 3594 mm.[21]
Commercial Division
In 1911 Daimler had plans to create The Premier Motor Omnibus Company (running Daimler buses) and appoint Frank Searle (ex London General Omnibus Company) as the managing director. However plans had to be scrapped at the last moment, and instead the Daimler managing director, Percy Martin, created the Daimler commercial division, with Frank Searle as its head.[22] Daimler had been involved with various commercial vehicle designs for some time, and this brought vans, trucks, buses, tractors and railcars under the same division head. All vehicles used the Daimler sleeve-valve petrol engines, many using the 105 hp[12] 15.9 L sleeve-valve straight-six engine.
New product announcements followed rapidly, with the 36 hp tractor launched at the June 1911 Norwich Agricultural Show, and its larger 105 hp version, the Foster-Daimler tractor (a joint project with William Foster & Co.) following in January 1912 (mainly destined for the South American market). Both used Daimler sleeve-valve engines, the larger 6-cylinder tractor having a small BSA starter engine.
In January 1912, new commercial vehicles included a 1-ton delivery van, lorries from 2 to 5 ton and a 40 hp omnibus.[22]
Royal transport
By 1914 Daimlers were used by royal families including those of Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Japan, Spain, and Greece; "its list of owners among the British nobility read like a digest of Debrett;" the Bombay agent supplied Indian princes; the Japanese agent, Okura, handled sales in Manchuria and Korea.
World War I work
During World War I, the military took the normal production cars, lorries, buses and ambulances together with a scout army vehicle and engines used in ambulances, trucks, and double-decker buses. Special products included aero-engines and complete aircraft, tank and tractor engines and munitions.
The first aircraft engine manufactured by Daimler was the 80 hp Gnome Monosoupape rotary. With no drawings available to them, Daimler's Gnome engines were reverse-engineered from an engine delivered to them on 7 August 1914. Daimler later built the RAF 1 and 1a air-cooled V8s, the RAF 4 and 4a V12s, the Le Rhone rotary, and the Bentley BR2 rotary alongside other manufacturers. Production of RAF 4 engines gave Daimler experience in building V12 engines which would be appreciated when they later designed and built "Double-Six" V12 engines for their large cars.
Daimler trained air force mechanics at its works and its training methods became the standard for all manufacturers instructing RAF mechanics.
Having its own body shop, Daimler had the woodworking ability to build complete aircraft. By the end of 1914, they had built 100 units of the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c. These were followed by the BE12 and RE8. Daimler purchased an open field beside their Radford factory, cleared the site, and made it available to the Government, who turned it into the main RAF testing ground for aircraft built in the Coventry district. Although Daimler tooled up for production of the Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.4 bomber the aircraft was cancelled due to poor performance. The last wartime aircraft produced was the Airco DH.10 Amiens bomber when they were building 80 aeroplanes a month.
Civil aviation
After the Armistice it was decided that Daimler Hire should extend its luxury travel services to include charter aircraft through a new enterprise, Daimler Air Hire. Following the take-over of Airco and its subsidiaries in February 1920 services included scheduled services London-Paris as well as "Taxi Planes" to "anywhere in Europe". In 1922, under the name of Daimler Airway services extended to scheduled flights London to Berlin and places between. Frank Searle, managing director of Daimler Hire and its subsidiaries moved with his deputy Humphery Wood into the new national carrier Imperial Airways at its formation on 1 April 1924. Searle and Wood and their Daimler Airway machines formed the core of Imperial Airways operations.
Lanchester acquisition and badging
The bulk of Daimler's shareholding in its subsidiary Daimler Hire Limited was sold to the Thomas Tilling Group in 1930.[27] and, in January 1931, Daimler completed the purchase of The Lanchester Motor Company Limited.[27] The new Lanchester 15/18 model introduced in 1931 was fitted with Daimler's fluid flywheel transmission.[27]
Although at first they produced separate ranges of cars with the Daimler badge appearing mainly on the larger models, by the mid-1930s the two were increasingly sharing components leading to the 1936 Lanchester 18/Daimler Light 20 differing in little except trim and grille.[28]
This marketing concept already employed with their BSA range of cars continued to the end of Lanchester and BSA car production. Some very important customers, including the Duke of York and at least two Indian princes, were supplied with big Daimler limousines with Lanchester grilles.
Review of BSA management before the Second World War
The divisiveness of the Daimler board did not end with the BSA takeover, but continued into the board of BSA. Despite this, Daimler prospered until the late 1920s, increasing its profits and its reputation. Along with an apprenticeship programme that was among the best in the British industry at the time,[29] they attracted a large number of pupils out of public schools.[29] During the First World War, Daimler's labour force grew from 4,000 to 6,000 men.
The acquisition of Airco in February 1920 was a financial disaster for the BSA group. Percy Martin had been strongly in favour of the purchase, including Airco's extensive production facilities near London, and no one thought to examine Airco's true circumstances, leading to liabilities in excess of £1.3 million. All dividends were passed from 1920 to 1924.
By 1930 the BSA Group's primary activities were BSA motorcycles and Daimler vehicles.[30] However, all the quality car businesses experienced financial difficulties in the late 1920s. Daimler's situation seemed particularly serious. Sales fell sharply in 1927–1928, a period of losses ensued and no dividends were paid between 1929 and 1936. The sleeve valve engine was outdated, Daimler's production methods had become old-fashioned, they had an extravagantly large range of products.
Management shift
From before the merger of Daimler into the BSA group the core of Daimler's management was formed by chairman Edward Manville, works manager Percy Martin, and sales manager Ernest Instone, who left Daimler in 1921 to start auto dealer Stratton-Instone, and was responsible for Daimler sales in England and Wales thereafter. Instone died in 1932, Manville died in 1933, and Martin, who in January 1934 replaced Alexander Roger, Manville's replacement, as chairman, retired in 1935. In May 1936 Laurence Pomeroy was fired as managing director of Daimler with immediate effect. Daimler was not paying dividends and the 1936 BSA shareholders' meetings were stormy. Attempted solutions had included the Lanchester acquisition and the introduction of smaller cars, the lower-priced 10 hp Lanchester and its matching but six-cylinder stable-mate the Daimler Fifteen (later DB17 and DB18) introduced in the early thirties. This particular product line as the Lanchester Fourteen and Daimler Conquest was to run through to almost the very end.
Edward H. W. Cooke attempted a revival and from 1937 introduced saloons with a freshness of design new to Daimler. The new products had successes in competitions and rallies. His policy was proved sound but another war, post-war austerity and yet more boardroom battles, this time in public, seemed to put an end to Daimler's once-proud business.[29]
Daimler's semi-automatic transmissions
Daimler started testing the "Fluidrive" system in a bus chassis in 1928. This system, patented by Harold Sinclair in 1926, applied Hermann Föttinger's fluid flywheel to replace the clutch in the transmission systems of road vehicles. Daimler was initially interested in the fluid flywheel for use in commercial vehicles, but Martin decided to develop the system for use in passenger cars as well. Martin and Pomeroy originally intended to use the fluid flywheel with a conventional gearbox. Their consultant, Frederick Lanchester, warned them that putting a car with that combination on the market would be "a terribly big gambling risk," and an accident in March 1929 where a Double-Six 30 with a prototype transmission damaged a garage in Devon after Pomeroy left it idling while in gear may have shown the nature of this risk. By October 1930, when Daimler introduced the fluid flywheel on their new Light Double-Six for an extra £50, it was used with the self changing gearbox developed by W. G. Wilson.[32][33] Martin and the Daimler Company patented their refinements to Sinclair's system in 1930.
By November 1933 the combination of fluid flywheel and Wilson preselector gearbox was used in all Daimler vehicles, "ranging from 10 h.p. passenger cars to double-deck omnibuses" according to the chairman's report to the shareholders at their Annual General Meeting that month.[34]
Second World War work
During the Second World War, Daimler turned again to military production. A four-wheel-drive scout car, known to the Army as the Dingo had a 2.5-litre engine and the larger Daimler Armoured Car powered by a 4.1-litre engine and armed with a 2-pounder gun were produced, both with six-cylinder power units, fluid flywheels and epicyclic gearboxes.[35] These military vehicles incorporated various innovative features including disc brakes on all four wheels.[35] The Dingo was designed by parent company BSA and took the name "Dingo" from an unsuccessful competitor submitted by Alvis.[36]
During the war Daimler built more than 6,600 Scout Cars and some 2,700 Mk I and Mk II Armoured Cars. Daimler also provided tank components, including epicyclic gearboxes for 2,500 Crusader, Covenanter and Cavalier tanks. They built 74,000 Bren gun, initially at a workshop in their Coventry factory and, after the workshop was destroyed in the April 1941 raid, at a boot and shoe factory in Burton-on-Trent.
Postwar decline
Winston Churchill campaigned for the 1945 and 1950 general elections in the DB18 two-door drophead coupé he had ordered in 1939.[37] The government ordered new limousines for the commanding officers of the occupying forces. New straight-eights were supplied to the former colonies for the planned royal tours.[38]
The first Daimler limousines to be delivered after the war went to embassies and consulates in Europe and to the Lieutenant-Governors of Jersey and Guernsey. These were Straight-Eights built largely from pre-war stock. The first post-war model was the Eighteen, a development of the pre-war Fifteen using the Scout Car's 2.5 L engine with a new high-compression cylinder head. The model used curved glass in its side windows which were framed by chromed metal channels instead of the thick pillars that were usual at the time. Because of ongoing restrictions on steel, many of the Eighteen's body panels were made from aluminium. The first post-war Lanchester, the Ten, looked like an enlarged Ford Prefect and its body was made in the same factory, Briggs Motor Bodies
Consorts discounted
Sir Bernard Docker, chairman of the parent company, took the extra responsibility of Daimler's managing director in January 1953 when James Leek was unable to continue through illness. Car buyers were still waiting for the new (Churchill) government's easing of the 'temporary' swingeing purchase tax promised in the lead up to the snap-election held during the 1951 Earl's Court Motor Show. Lady Docker told her husband to rethink his marketing policies. 3-litre Regency production was stopped. In the hope of keeping 4,000+ employed the Consort price was dropped from 4 February 1953 to the expected new tax-inclusive level.
Stagnation of all the British motor industry was relieved by the reduction of purchase tax in the April 1953 budget. Daimler announced the introduction of the moderately sized Conquest in May (apparently developed in just four months from the four-cylinder Lanchester 14 or Leda with a Daimler grille).
Daimler and Lanchester (there were no more BSA cars) struggled after the War, producing too many models with short runs and limited production, and frequently selling too few of each model, while Jaguar seemed to know what the public wanted and expanded rapidly. Daimler produced heavy, staid, large and small luxury cars with a stuffy, if sometimes opulent image. Jaguar produced lower quality cars at a remarkably low price, designed for enthusiasts.
The BSA group's leadership of the world's motorcycle market was eventually lost to Japanese manufacturers.
Lady Docker's Daimlers
Sir Bernard Docker was the managing director of BSA from early in WWII, and married Norah, Lady Collins in 1949. Nora was twice-widowed and wealthy in her own right. This was her third marriage. She had originally been a successful dance hall hostess. Lady Docker took an interest in her husband's companies and became a director of Hooper, the coachbuilders.
Daughter of an unsuccessful Birmingham car salesman[41] Lady Docker could see that the Daimler cars, no longer popular with the royal family, were in danger of becoming an anachronism in the modern world. She took it upon herself to raise Daimler's profile, but in an extravagant fashion, by encouraging Sir Bernard to produce show cars.
The first was the 1951 "Golden Daimler", an opulent touring limousine, in 1952, "Blue Clover", a two-door sportsmans coupe, in 1953 the "Silver Flash" based on the 3-litre Regency chassis, and in 1954 "Stardust", redolent of the "Gold Car", but based on the DK400 chassis as was what proved to be her Paris 1955 grande finale, a 2-door coupé she named "Golden Zebra", the "last straw" for the Tax Office and now on permanent display at The Hague.
At the same time Lady Docker earned a reputation for having rather poor social graces when under the influence, and she and Sir Bernard were investigated for failing to correctly declare the amount of money taken out of the country on a visit to a Monte Carlo casino.
Turner's engines
Jack Sangster sold his motorcycle companies Ariel and Triumph to BSA in 1951 and joined their board. In 1956 Sangster was elected chairman, defeating Sir Bernard 6 votes to 3. After a certain amount of electioneering by the Dockers an extraordinary shareholders' meeting backed the board decision and Bernard and Norah left buying a brace of Rolls-Royces as they went registering them as ND5 and BD9. Many important European customers turned out to have been Docker friends and did not re-order Daimler cars.
Sangster promptly made Edward Turner head of the automotive division which as well as Daimler and Carbodies (London Taxicab manufacturers) included Ariel, Triumph, and BSA motorcycles. Turner designed the lightweight hemi head Daimler 2.5 & 4.5 Litre V8 Engines. The small engine was used to power a production version of an apprentice's exercise, the very flexible Dart and the larger engine installed in the Majestic Major, a relabelled Majestic. Under Sangster Daimler's vehicles became a little less sober and more performance oriented. The Majestic Major proved an agile high-speed cruiser on the new motorways. Bill Boddy described the SP250 as unlikely to stir the memories of such ghosts as haunt the tree-lined avenues near Sandringham, Balmoral and Windsor Castle.[45]
