John Marston was born way back in 1836 in Ludlow, England. At 15 he was sent to Wolverhampton to be apprenticed as a japanner.
When John was 23 years old, he set up John Marston Ltd, a firm which became one of the country’s largest producers of japanware.
Marston was a keen cyclist and In 1887 the first Sunbeam bicycle had been turned out at the works.They were highly successful but John was something of a perfectionist and remained unhappy about the quality of the pedals.
He dispatched his son, Charles, to the USA in 1890 with instructions to discuss pedal engineering with Pratt & Whitney of Connecticut, and return with a high quality example and the machinery to produce them. It turned out the machinery required wouldn’t fit in the existing ‘Sunbeamland’ factory, so in 1898 John bought an engineering firm at 5 Villiers Street, Wolverhampton, which would give the company its name.
The company made its first engine in early 1912, a 350 cc four-stroke. Later that year it developed a 269 cc two-stroke. The simplicity of that engine, combined with an attractive price, made it a rapid success. During 1913 the Sun-Villers motorcycle was launched manufactured by the Sun Cycle & Fittings Co.
After the Great War, Villiers engines could be found in motorcycles made by Sun, James, Greeves , Francis-Barnett, Norman, Ambassador, DMW , Dot and Panther (P and M), and many others.
John Marston retired, also on this day, in 1916 and died two years later, aged 82.
