The initials MG, used in the MG name, actually stand for Morris Garages, which in the early 1920’s was the name of the Oxford distributor of Morris cars. By strange coincidence the business was owned by a Mr. William Morris, who later became Lord Nuffield. When Cecil Kimber was appointed as the General Manager of the company in 1922, the firm began to specialise in marketing Morris Cowley’s that were customised by lowering the suspension and the fitting of a sports car body.

By 1924, Morris Garages were advertising an MG Special four-seater Sports model, which was the first to display the now famous octagonal MG badge. Old Number One, as it was called, may have been the first MG sports car, but it was the 48th body built for Morris Garages by the firm, Carbodies of Coventry.

In 1929 Morris Garages moved its business to Abingdon in Oxfordshire, this being the third premises they occupied in eight years, by which time the company had been renamed as the MG Car Company. During the early 1930s, MG cars made their name as a producer of sports cars, and whose road cars were promoted by their success in motor racing, but in 1935 William Morris sold his private companies, including MG, to Morris Motors.

The purists will argue that from that point onwards MG cars were never the same again. There was less variety in the products, racing activities became limited, and the placing the MG badge on BMC saloons, such as a derivative of the Morris Oxford and smaller 1300 saloon, was not well accepted. Despite this the MG TC, MGA, MG Midget and MGB were produced and sold in large numbers alongside these saloons and as affordable sports cars they were extremely popular, holding up well in competition against their competitors, such as Triumph. It was only the appalling and inadequate management of British Leyland during the 1970’s that destroyed the great name of MG, putting an end to production.

In 1980, to the tune of much public demonstration and protest, the MG works at Abingdon closed its gates for the last time. However, from 1982 to1990 the MG name was applied to re-badged and tuned Maestros, Montegos and Metros, just like it had been in those earlier years when MG versions of the Morris Oxford were produced. MG enthusiasts were given a ray of false hope that their beloved marque was to be revived in 1992 when the MGB styled MG RV8 appeared, but this too fell by the wayside after a very short production run.

Today the MG badge is owned by the Rover Group and was resurrected in the late 1990’s with the launch of a mid-engined sports model, the MGF, and more recently with the introduction of MG badged versions the Rover saloons, a repetition of the beginning of the history of MG cars.