The Swallow Sidecar Company was founded on 4 September 1922 by two friends, William Walmsley (b. 1891) and William Lyons (b. 1901). Both families lived in the same street in Blackpool, England. Walmsley had previously been making sidecars and bolting them onto reconditioned motorcycles. Lyons had served his apprenticeship at Crossley Motors in Manchester before moving to Brown and Mallalieu as a junior salesman. In 1927 the "Sidecar" was dropped from the name, and it became the Swallow Coachbuilding Company.