We left the Triumph story last issue at a very low ebb in 1944 – the company had few assets left, no realistic prospect of restarting car production in their own right, and an owner in steel maker Thomas W Ward Ltd of Sheffield whose purchase of the concern in September 1939 had been overtaken by world events and who now wanted to offload what was left of the once proud car manufacturing operation. Of Triumph's two factories in Coventry, Ward had already sold off the larger Gloria works in 1939 to the government and leased the smaller Clay Lane/Briton Road works to Armstrong Whitworth to make aeroplane sections. When the latter site was badly damaged during the Coventry Blitz on 14th November 1940, most of the remaining stock of parts for the pre-war cars was destroyed with it.
However, the name and the reputation retained some value, and it was these that attracted Sir John Black, autocratic Chairman of the Standard Motor Company. At this point we need to take a small detour away from Triumph because as any Standard enthusiast will happily tell you, without Standard there would have been no post-war Triumphs. The Standard Motor Co Ltd had been set up by Reginald Maudslay in Coventry on 2nd March 1903, so ranked as one of the UK's oldest car manufacturers. The first Standard cars were sold in 1904, the company quickly concentrating initially on large and upmarket six-cylinder designs. This strategy changed with the launch of the Model S in 1913, a light car that arguably provided financial salvation for a company which was struggling for cash.
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Like many other firms – Triumph among them with their motorbikes – Standard contributed a great deal to the war effort from 1914-1918, and emerged from the conflict with a huge tract of land into which it could expand its Works at Canley
