Harry John Lawson - Motor Promotor

Motor Promotor

Lawson saw great opportunities in the creation of a motor car industry in Britain, and sought to enrich himself by garnering important patents and shell companies.

In 1895, as one of many attempts to promote his schemes and lobby Parliament for the elimination of the Red Flag Act, Lawson and Frederick Simms founded the Motor Car Club of Britain.

Lawson and the Motor Car Club organised the first London to Brighton run, the "Emancipation Run", which was held on 14 November 1896 to celebrate the relaxation of the Red Flag Act, which eased the way for the start of the development of the British motor industry.

Lawson attempted to monopolise the British automobile industry through the acquisition of foreign patents. He acquired exclusive British rights to manufacture the De Dion-Bouton and Bollée vehicles; bought the Humber Bicycle Company; and British patent rights for US bicycle designs. He founded a succession of promotional companies including: the British Motor Syndicate with Adolphe Clément and Lord Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury. (BMS was the first of many of Lawson's schemes to collapse in 1897, but it did provide the genesis for the Clément and Talbot marques.) Lawson also founded the British Motor Company, British Motor Traction Company, The Great Horseless Carriage Company, Motor Manufacturing Company, and of E. J. Pennington, forming the Anglo-American Rapid Vehicle Company. With his one great success, The Daimler Motor Company Limited, he bought in the rights of Gottlieb Daimler though this company too was to be reorganised in 1904. After a succession of business failures the British Motor Syndicate was reorganized and renamed the British Motor Traction Company in 1901, led by Selwyn F. Edge.