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They resembled motorised horse carriages with bodies built by Arthur Mulliner of Northampton located over twin motors, a 2-speed gearbox with clutch (unusual in an electric), and chain final drive.

Three of these electric vehicles took part in in the London-Brighton Emancipation Run of November 1896, though it was widely rumoured that they completed the journey by train. This was finally confirmed by Walter Bersey in a speech to the Veteran Car Club in 1935.

The first Mulliner bodied Bersey taxis went into service on 19 August 1897 and by the end of 1898 the London Electric Cab Company - based in Juxton Street, Lambeth and with Walter Bersey as General Manager - was running twenty-five, with some reserved for the profitable carriage trade.

With a 40 cell battery powering 3.5 bhp Lundell type motors and built by the Great Horseless Carriage Company, the first Bersey taxis featured quick-change battery boxes and had a range of 30 miles and a top speed of 9 mph.  They were the first self-propelled road vehicles available for public hire in London and perhaps in the whole of Great Britain.

The public’s initial reaction appeared to be good, with reports of them being taken from the ranks in preference to horse cabs, to the annoyance of the horse cabmen who had been waiting for some time for a fare. Some cabmen were keen to drive them and their union supported their arrival but other cabmen feared them, thinking that the motors were ‘explosive’.

They were much reported in the press and christened ‘humming birds’, because of the noise of the motors and their bright yellow and black paint but two incidents tarnished their reputation.

The first occurred on 10 September 1897, just three weeks after their introduction. A cabman, George Smith was charged with drunken driving in Bond Street while in charge of a Bersey. He was fined £1.

The next, tragic incident occurred just three weeks later, when a small boy, nine year old Stephen Kempton was cadging a ride by standing on the back springs of a Bersey when his coat was caught in the driving chain and he was crushed. He became the first child in Britain to be killed by a motor vehicle.

The cabs were also not as economical or as reliable as the company hoped. The range was suspect and, if the batteries were to run out of charge, recovering the cabs was a difficult business. The batteries proved too heavy for the vehicle and wore out the tyres, the motors began to vibrate badly and the battery box was insecurely fitted and slid about when the cab was in motion.

The low ground clearance afforded by the battery boxes was similarly considered a hazard. If a pedestrian were to be run over by a Bersey, the argument went, then he might be saved from further harm if the ground clearance was sufficient for the cab to continue over him.

The drivers, who at first were happy to pay the company six shillings (30p) per day to hire the cabs soon left when that rate was put up to twelve shillings and tuppence-farthing, (around 66p) the same as that for a hansom. The public soon tired of their novelty too, and despite there being some keen adherents, hirings became fewer.

The original vehicles were withdrawn in early 1899, and the company temporarily laid off their cabmen. A few weeks later, Bersey himself wrote to ‘The Autocar’, announcing that no less than 50 of a second type, built by the Gloucester Carriage and Wagon Company were scheduled to reappear on 28 May 1899, alongside the original 25.

These had improved batteries and would be painted in new colours. Bersey denied the rumour that they would be fitted with ‘taxameters’, as taximeters were then known, but this would prove to be incorrect, although several of the new vehicles would be ‘specially fitted and reserved for private hire’.

On Wednesday 24 May 1899 the cabs were paraded around the streets of the capital to announce their return to service. However, Bersey was dismayed by unconfirmed reports that several cabs had been involved in accidents in the Fleet Street and Farringdon areas, and wrote to ‘The Autocar’ magazine about these reports. Apart from explaining that one cab encountered problems with a tyre, he denied that any the so-called dangerous events ever happened and announced that he had put the matter into the hands of his solicitors.

The end was signalled when a Bersey ran out of control and crashed outside Hyde Park Gate. Some elements of the press remained actively hostile, and continued to criticise the Berseys, reducing public confidence.

They were removed from service in 1899 and the company ceased to trade, with some of the cabs sold to independent proprietors. Electric cabs in Paris and in New York were also eventually a failure. The London cab trade would have to wait for technology to catch up with ambition and, for four years the horse cabmen had the work to themselves.

No Bersey private carriage is known to survive, but an original batch black and yellow taxi (pictured above) can be seen in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. Bersey himself turned to petrol building his own first internal combustion car in 1898 and later selling Delahaye and Darracq cars on behalf of the Automobile Manufacturing Company of Long Acre, London.

Meanwhile, in 1904, the Brush Company of Loughborough took up the electric cudgel with just six Brushmobile cars - made in their Falcon Works in Loughborough at the same time as the first electric trams for Gloucester.  Of these, only one - carrying the number plate HS25 - survives to this day but gained cinematic fame in 1966 when driven by Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung - played by Harry H. Corbett - in "Carry on Screaming".

Interestingly, the 1967 Brush locomotive "Kestrel" carried the number HS 4000 - formed from its 4 000 installed horsepower and from the fact that Brush was by then a member of the Hawker Siddeley group of companies.

However, Gloucester RCW were also to be involved in a final attempt to make electric taxi cabs work nine years later when the Lambeth based British Electromobile Company ordered 50 chassis from Greenwood & Batley, a Leeds machine tool manufacturer in October 1908.  Greenwood & Batley would also later become well known for producing electric locomotives for coal mines.

They were fitted with bodies by several London coachmakers as well by the Gloucester Carriage and Wagon Company.

The cabs were operated by the Electric Taxicab Company and they were heavy, bulky 4-seaters but with a substantial luggage carrying capacity and a range of 45 miles. These were to work the main London railway termini and oust the horse-drawn growlers, but just 20 out of a promised 500 were delivered.

The increased power of petrol cabs, which enabled them to carry four-seat bodies and luggage, plus their unlimited range, would mean the end of electric cabs in the 20th Century - although perhaps not as the 21st Century progresses.  Only time will tell.