Who was Wilbur Gunn, the founder of the Lagonda Company?
by Arnold Davey, Lagonda Club Historian
Wilbur Gunn, taken towards the end of his life (he died in1919)
The Lagonda make was founded by an expatriate American, Wilbur Adams Gunn who was born in Troy, Ohio, in 1859, the second son of the Rev. J.W.Gunn. He was brought up in Springfield Ohio where Lagonda is the name of a district which grew up on the banks of Lagonda Creek, itself a corruption of the local Indian name for the river.
Gunn came to England in l89l, ostensibly to set up a European branch of his brother-in-law's Lagonda manufacturing co which made steam engine equipment. As a former Singer apprentice, he was also a consulting engineer in his own right, specialising in hydraulic equipment for theatres and lifts, then very fashionable. As a hobby he was a keen singer and through a local operatic group he met Mrs. Constance Grey, who lived with her husband in a large house with extensive grounds on the Surrey side of the river at Staines. Mr Grey died in 1896 and the fol1owing year Gunn and the widow married and he then set up a small machine shop in the greenhouse. In 1898 Gunn made himself a small petrol engine which he fixed to his bicycle to ease his travels between sites. He also designed and built small compound steam engines which he sold to owners of Thames river launches.
Wilbur died in 1919 and the company continued as a separate entity. For more history, turn to the short history of Lagondas page by Arnold Davey, Lagonda Club Historian.
