The man who guided the destinies of the Morgan car for almost fifty years, H.F.S. (Henry Frederick Stanley) Morgan, was born at Morton Jeffries Rectory, Herefordshire in 1881. His father was the Reverend H G Morgan at Stoke Lacy and he married Ruth, the daughter of the late Reverend Archibald Day, formally vicar of St Matthias, Malvern Link.  H.F.S., as his loyal workers and personal friends knew him, was educated at Stone House, Broadstairs, Marlborough College and at the Crystal Palace Engineering College. He began his career as the 18 year-old pupil of William Dean, Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway Works at Swindon, where he worked as a draughtsman in the drawing office for seven years.
While making a modest contribution to the history of steam H.F.S.'s loyalties were divided between the locomotive and the motorcar.
After a hair-raising first drive in a 3 hp Benz that ran away with him down the 1-in-6 gradient of a hill between Bromyard and Hereford, he emerged intact but considerably poorer. Damages to the car cost about £28 for repairs and delayed his ambition of owning his own car.
He left the GWR in 1906 and at the age of 25 opened a garage and motor works in Malvern Link where he ran a most successful bus service with a special 10 hp Wolseley 15 seater. These ran from Malvern Link to the Wells and later from Malvern to Gloucester.
Eventually he could afford to purchase a motor vehicle, an Eagle Tandem. In the tradition of Henry Royce and James Packard, the engineer in Morgan told him he could do better. With the help of a professor named Stephenson Peach, Morgan drew up a simple but well-thought-out design that was a significant improvement on the Eagle. Like the Eagle, it was a three-wheeler, a design that had significant advantages in lightweight and ease of manufacture. The first Morgan Runabout had been born!
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