1895 Cars Imported into Britain by Malcolm Jeal

Motorcars Imported into Britain prior to 31st December 1895 by Malcolm Jeal

1891 Spring. Serpollet Steam Carriage. “The exigencies of the English law confined our excursion to the limits of Messrs Bryan Donkin & Sons’ works at Bermondsey …” The Serpollet did not run on British roads and it was returned to France.

1894 Summer. A French Salvation Army officer, Major Thom, took a Peugeot car to the Channel Islands and ran it on the roads there for about a month before returning home to France with it. Some claim that this constitutes the first motorcar imported into Britain. As the vehicle was only a temporary visitor, and even though the Channel Islands are part of the British Isles, I cannot be persuaded that this episode can be considered as being ‘Britain’s first imported motorcar’, any more than was the Serpollet referred to above. When I take my modern car to France, and drive it on French roads, it does not become an ‘imported car’, simply a visitor. Sir David Salomons referred to the incident in The Autocar 1895/11/30 p56.

No motorcars have been found that were imported into Britain and then used on British roads prior to 1895. There were of course a significant number of steam-powered British vehicles made almost throughout the whole century before 1895, but the extent to which they were adequately functional was limited, and restrictive British legislation negated against their use. All the cars listed below had petrol-engines.

1st Import

• Date Imported into UK: 4/5 July 1895
• Make: Panhard-Levassor 3¾hp (No 394)
• Owner: Honourable Evelyn Ellis, Datchet. (French) ex-Works: 29th June 1895

2nd Import

• Date Imported into UK: 9th Sept 1895
• Make: Peugeot 3¾hp (French)
• Owner: Sir David Salomons. Tunbridge Wells
• Details of this car at the Tunbridge Wells Show

3rd Import

• Date Imported into UK: - - Nov 1895
• Make: Roger-Benz 4hp
• Owner: Leon L'Hollier, Birmingham. See The Autocar 1895/11/23 p37 (the car having been used on roads in Birmingham for some time before this date). It was exhibited at the Stanley Show, London, The Autocar 1895/11/30 pp57-60.

4th Import

• Date Imported into UK: 21 Nov 1895
• Make: Lutzmann 4hp (German)
• Owner: John Adolphus Koosen, Southsea. First driven on British roads: 9th Dec 1895. Detailed info in: The Badminton Library: Motors & Motor Driving 1902 pp363-366, using Mrs Koosen’s diary; and The Autocar 1895/12/21 p85, et seq

5th Import

• Date Imported into UK: Nov/Dec 1895
• Make: Cannstatt-Daimler 3½hp (German)
• Owner: Frederick Simms, London. Demonstrated to Press at Crystal Palace, see The Autocar 1895/12/21 p91

6th Import

• Date Imported into UK: - - Dec 1895
• Make: Benz ‘Velo’ 1½hp (German)
• Owner: Henry Hewetson, London. The car (No 260) was ex-works 29.11.1895 NOT 12 months earlier as Hewetson claimed in 1903.

7th Import

• Date Imported into UK: 27th Dec 1895
• Make: Panhard-Levassor 3¾hp (No 596), (French) ex-Works 16.12.1895
• Owner: T. R. B. Elliot, Hawick, Scotland. See The Autocar 1896/03/28 1896 pp257-8, plus Elliot’s diaries in VCC Gazette No 104.

Important Note

• It is possible that engineer George Johnston, later the maker of Arrol-Johnston motorcars in Glasgow, had imported a car in 1895, possibly a Cannstatt-Daimler or only an engine from the German firm. He had a motorcar running on the City’s streets in 1895, but its origins are unclear.

See Also

Loading...