#MorganMotorCompany

We’re a long way from the days when the United Kingdom not only hosted a slew of independent automakers, it owned some of them. For decades, brands fell away as most of the remaining automakers found new parents living on the wrong side of the English Channel. Jaguar, Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Mini, Lotus, and now Morgan.

Known for its famed 3-Wheeler and persistence in retaining wood construction elements and running boards, the 110-year-old automaker just handed a majority stake to an Italian investment firm. The sound you hear might be Union Jacks being lowered in Malvern Link.

The British publication Autocar says that it has seen a document from Morgan Motors that says that Charles Morgan, grandson of the founder of the company, was fired for four instances of misconduct. The authenticity of the document has been questioned, but if it is authentic, it verifies that Morgan’s firing is at least partially the result of a dispute with family members.

From Charles Morgan’s personal blog.

October 18 2013 – Statement from Charles Morgan

As has been widely reported, I have been asked to leave the Morgan Motor Company by the board. It is a sad decision that I am appealing; I remain a major shareholder in Morgan.

I’m proud to say I leave with the company’s annual production volumes double what they were at the start of my tenure, with new export markets such as China opened to the company. Morgan remains a small but successful family firm.

I’d like to be clear that I am not a tycoon but a family man – I inherited a company not wealth – and unexpectedly leaving its employment will be a hardship for myself and my family. Being asked to leave the company that bears my name is also extremely personally distressing. That is made more painful as today marks 10 years since my father, Peter Morgan, died and I feel him in spirit with me in this dispute.

For the first time in 103 years, Morgan Motor Company is being run by someone other than a Morgan family member. Charles Morgan, the grandson of H.F.S. Morgan, who founded the most traditional of British specialty carmakers, is no longer employed by the company, according to Morgan Technologies, an affiliate company to Morgan Motor.