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Armstrong Siddeley in Advertising

When John Siddeley left the Wolseley Company he joined the Deasy Motor Company. This company named after the founder Henry Deasy was formed along with his business partner Edmund Lewis.

Henry Deasy was of Irish decent born in Dublin in 1866. (incidentally, the same birth year as John Siddeley). He served as a military man for eight years before making a name for himself surveying and mapping on behalf of the British Government an area of over 40,000 square miles of Tibet and Chinese Turkestan. For this work he was awarded the National Geographic Society's Gold Medal.

His interest turned to the developing world of motoring and in 1902 he joined the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland (incidentally again the year in which John Siddeley also became a member). His first venture into motoring was as a London agent for the French Rochet-Schneider cars and soon he switched to the Italian Martini cars. However in 1906 he decided to become an automobile manufacturer.

Progressing from agent to vehicle producer Deasy purchased George Iden's failed car company's works at Parkside, Coventry. With Lewis as general manager, designer and engineer, plans were made to build the first 100 cars. Constructing vehicles from parts entirely made in house is no mean task. Hardly surprising that even an excellent design would have teething troubles and despite an improving product by April of 1908 the frustrated non engineer Deasy aided by serious disagreements with his board, chose to resign from the company bearing his name.

In the spring of 1909 John Siddeley became General Manager of the Deasy Motor Company,