Harold Rolfe Owen[9] was born in Yorkshire on 6 November 1899, and served in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I.

Owen subsequently served for some years abroad, principally at Bombay, Karachi and Aden, before returning to Britain and beginning work at the National Benzole Company.

This gave him many useful sales contacts when he joined Rolls-Royce and Bentley retailer Jack Barclay in 1927, becoming general manager a short while later.

Owen Rolls-Royce and Bentley dealership opened in Mayfair's Berkeley Street in February 1932 and continued trading until the outbreak of war, when luxury car retailing came to an enforced halt.

Harold Owen fully intended to resume the motor retail business post-war, but he fell ill when on tank manoeuvres with his regiment, the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, and died 17 February 1940, following an emergency operation to remove a brain tumour.

An astute trader, Swain began to build a larger motor empire, buying up retailers as well as coachbuilders and suppliers.

The post-war years were not kind to independent coachbuilders as prestige manufacturers such as Bentley and Rolls-Royce were obliged by advances such as monocoque construction (finally adopted in 1965 for their Silver Shadow and T-series cars) to shift from supplying only the chassis and drivetrain of a vehicle to building the complete car, bodywork and all.

With Freestone and Webb's main chassis supplier relationship coming to an end, the coachbuilding business continued to refurbish and build bodies until 1958, when it became only a name for a showroom.

Owen continues as a Rolls-Royce retailer, while Jack Barclay of Berkeley Square remains the world's largest Bentley dealer.

In August of that year HR Owen announced the acquisition of Broughtons of Cheltenham, a smaller luxury motor dealer, for an enterprise value of £2.8 million.