e History of Duff Morgan: 1909-2014 (part one)
ABOVE: The original founders of Duff Morgan & Vermont (from right to left); Colonel Granville Duff MC, John Delmar Morgan and Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson CMG, DSO
ABOVE: Specialist coach building was a major part of the Duff Morgan & Vermont business in the early years. At right can be seen the company’s premises at Victoria Gates in Norwich
A long road of success...
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t comes as a surprise to most people cars for the growing motoring public of that Duff Morgan is actually the Norfolk, the London premises of Duff, abbreviated trading name of Duff Morgan & Vermont were making a Morgan & Vermont Ltd – but it’s an significant effort to support Britain’s war indication of a remarkable history that effort. stretches back over 100 years. Although the cavalry-minded Army saw On 13th March 1909, the Company was little merit in adopting anything mechanical, established by three hugely-talented Locker-Lampson’s friend Winston Churchill gentlemen – Colonel Granville Duff MC, felt very differently, and (in a typically John Delmar Morgan and Commander persuasive manner) encouraged the Navy to Oliver Locker-Lampson CMG, DSO. Duff, reap the enormous benefits of fighting with whose descendant David Barratt is the armoured cars. company’s current Chairman and Managing Part of a classified Admiralty document Director, was Lord Mayor of Norwich from (only discovered in 1999) reads “...the 1920-1921, while Admiralty armoured cars, Morgan was an which included Austin, Rolls engineer well ahead Royce and other cars, and of his time – he Pierce Arrow, Ford, actually designed Springfield and other lorries, and built a ‘hybrid’ with and without turrets, vehicle (a motor were entirely designed by yacht called and the manufacture Mansura) as early as arranged through, the firm 1912. Duff Morgan & Vermont.” The ‘Vermont’ Locker-Lampson himself element of the new actually commanded an company’s name armoured car unit which ABOVE: Duff Morgan’s current Chairman came courtesy of fought alongside the armies and Managing Director David Barratt (right) of the Czar on the Russian Locker-Lampson, picture with his father John in the 1960s front in December 1915. whose political Following the First World War, Duff background and connections discouraged Morgan ceased trading in London and him from lending his name to such a newconcentrated on their Norfolk business, fangled and unproven invention as the which by then comprised three separate motor car. Instead, he chose to use the premises in Norwich. name of the American state in which his These were heady times for the company, mother had been born. which sold a wide range of different cars While the Norwich-based company was during the inter-war period. Some of the busy making a successful impact building
names (such as Opel and Peugeot) are familiar today, but they were joined by Adler, Alldays & Onions, De Dion, Hupmobile, Swift – even the model T Ford, which could be bought at the time for the round (but not inconsiderable) sum of £100. After the Second World War (which had seen the company’s Earlham Road premises in Norwich destroyed in a 1942 bombing raid) Duff Morgan became the sole distributors in most of Norfolk for Standard Triumph, which many years later would become part of the British Leyland empire. Duff Morgan remained a family concern through the chairmanship and direction of Mr Charles Hore-Ruthven, and continued following his death in 1963 when the company’s remaining shareholders were bought out by John Barratt. Barratt’s son David would join the company in 1964, becoming Managing Director on his 21st birthday four years later – and he’s still the company’s Chairman and MD today. It’s been a long road for Duff Morgan, but as David Barratt likes to say: “I may be getting older, but the company itself has always managed to stay young!” It’s one great family tradition, one incredible history, one forward-thinking business – and that’s only half the story!
information
Duff Morgan Citroën 49 Bergen Way, North Lynn Industrial Estate King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE30 2JG Tel: 01553 770144 Web: www.duffmorgan.citroen.co.uk
NEXT MONTH: Citroën arrives at Duff Morgan and the business expands to King’s Lynn... 34
KLmagazine October 2014