Nat Gould

Hubert Wingfield Egerton 1875-1950

Hubert Wingfield Egerton was born in 1875 at Weston Longville in Norfolk, and baptised there at All Saints' parish church on 6 May 1875.

He was the son of the Reverend Charles Cadwallader Egerton 1831-1907, Rector of Weston Longville, and his wife née Caroline Boys 1852-1950. He became a motor engineer.

In 1904 he married Valerie Sorel Cameron. She was born in 1886 at Littlehampton in Sussex, the daughter of Henry and Flora Agnes Sorel Cameron of Weston under Penyard near Ross on Wye in Herefordshire.

They had the following children:

Charles Hubert Sorel Egerton. He was born in 1905. On 26 July 1925 he emigrated to Australia, sailing from Liverpool to Sydney on board the SS Ayrshire of the Scottish Shire Line (1).

Beryl Elizabeth Egerton. She was born in 1908. She was unmarried, and died in 1972.

Hubert Wingfield Egerton founded Mann, Egerton & Company Ltd with Gerald Mann at Norwich (2). The company was officially formed in 1905, but the two men had been working in partnership since at least 1898 (3).

The business of the firm comprised motor car retailing, aircraft manufacturing, automotive coach building, wood working, and electrical installation and services. In 1909 it supplied its first custom-built body for a Rolls-Royce car. By 1913 the company had branches across East Anglia and in London. The company built aeroplanes for service in the First World War, both those designed by Short Brothers and to their own design. During the Second World War, the firm built ambulance and other vehicle bodies (4).

Hubert Wingfield Egerton died in 1950 at Virginia Water in Surrey (5).

(1) UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890-1960 (1925).
(2) The company headquarters were in Prince of Wales Road in Norwich, where they had a British Leyland dealership. The garage at Surrey Street in the city had a Ford dealership; and commercial vehicles and the woodworking business were run from premises at Cromer Road in Norwich. Garages in other towns were opened or acquired in central London (from where they sold Rolls Royce and Bentley cars), Finchley, Lowestoft, Uttoxeter, Nottingham, Derby and Worcester.
(3) The "Tern" logo used in the 1960s was often accompanied by the statement "ESTD. 1898".
(4) In 1964, the electrical department was sold to the Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company. Mann Egerton was acquired by Inchcape PLC in 1973, although its woodworking business continued, making school furniture, until bought out by the management in 1986. The coach building business, making refrigerated vehicles, was sold to Bonallock Coachbuilders.
(5) "EGERTON Hubert Wingfield of Holloway Sanatorium Virginia Water Surrey died 19 November 1950 Probate Ipswich 6 January [1951] to Justin Reginald Egerton company director and Lional [sic] Hastings Vulliamy solicitor. Effects £1914 18s 6d." Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858-1966 (1913) page 130. Effects £285.
Lionel Hastings Vulliamy was the second cousin of his mother.