Frederick Wolseley originally made sheep shearing machinery in Australia where he was helped by a certain Herbert Austin…. it was not a huge success and both returned to Birmingham England in 1893 where Austin became General Manager of the Wolseley Company. Sadly Wolseley died in 1899 but Austin formed a subsidiary company to make cars under the Wolseley name. By the 1920’s the company was broke and William Morris bought the name and turned it into the upmarket  brand for his Nuffield Automobile Group. Wolseley soldiered on into BMC ownership but when the group became BL the name was quietly dropped as the Wolseley Princess of 1975 turned itself into the Austin Ambassador.