Argson three-wheeled motorised ‘invalid carriage’

Argson three-wheeled motorised ‘invalid carriage’, model 36 with registration number HPE 894, made by the Stanley Engineering Company, Egham, England, c1945-1950.

During the twentieth century, developments in vehicles for disabled drivers were closely linked to the two World Wars. Mobility was also a key part of the independence that many of those wounded by the conflicts strove for as they returned to civilian life. This petrol-driven road vehicle was one of a range of such vehicles that became increasingly common sights on Britain’s roads – and further afield. In 1947, ‘Denny’ Denly, paralysed by polio when serving in the navy, famously drove an Argson across the Swiss Alps, reaching altitudes of 3000 metres. He went on to found an organisation that would later become Disabled Motoring UK, which remains a major campaigning charity.

The Argson Engineering Company was founded in 1919 and was one of a number of companies formed after the First World War that supplied mobility vehicles to a market that had been greatly expanded by those left disabled by the conflict. In 1926 the company moved to Egham in Surry and was re-named the Stanley Engineering Company, though they retained the Argson brand name for their vehicles.