In November 1919, Corporal Joseph Edgar returned to his West Cumbria home of Rowrah, demobbed from the army and ready for civilian life.

With the Engineering Corps skills he'd learned during the first World War, Joseph soon launched an agricultural engineering venture.

Today, over 100 years later, the former army corporal's humble little enterprise has transmuted into the car dealership giant, J Edgar and Son.

Remaining a family-run business across four generations, J Edgar and Son is now helmed by Joseph’s great grandchildren, brothers, Jason and Justin Edgar.

Serving as the general managers of the firm's Nissan dealership in Rowrah and the Hyundai and Suzuki franchise at Dunmail Park in Workington, respectively, the brothers credit their business success to the same hard work and customer service philosophy instituted by their great grandfather.

Joseph Edgar expanded the business alongside his son Iredale, taking on a second site in Rowrah.

Iredale was the driving force behind the move to selling cars, becoming a franchise for Austin Motors during the 1950s.

Presently, J Edgar and Son employs 50 people across its Rowrah and Dunmail Park sites.

The brothers worked their way up within the company, starting as mechanics straight out of school.

“All we do is we love the customer,” said Terry, father of Jason and Justin.

“We find that if we look after the customers, then they tend to look after us.”

The Edgar family extends their ethos of care beyond their customer service and into their community.

After Jason's son Jorge received life-saving treatment at West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven and the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle in 2010, they decided to give back.

Jorge, his wife Claire, and the rest of the Edgar family who run J Edgar and Son, participated in a sponsored bed push from one hospital to the other in 2011, raising a whopping £45,000 for the hospitals involved.

It took three days to complete the push in relay stints of four hours at a time.

This is just one of the charity events that the family business has been involved in over the years.

This year, the company has been raising funds for the Great North Air Ambulance, and last year raised funds for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.

The latter charity is particularly close to their heart, as Justin's son Jonny has received treatment for the disease.

“People might think we do all our charity work for business reasons but we don’t,” said Justin. “Crohn's and Colitis were very, very supportive of Jonny and organisations like the air ambulance might help us all at some point.

“Of course, we hope we won’t need them, but if people don’t support them then they just won’t be there.”