English Electric Liberator, would have been 1961 or 1962.
Yes, it was automatic.

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images...-Liberator.jpg
(not my parents' actual one, but identical)

You turned the red dial to show the program you wanted in the
window, and then selected the number it showed on the dial on
the right, which slowly turned to go through the wash cycle.
There were contacts on both dials, which combined to form the
wash cycle program. The red dial showed 1-3 different programs,
and the right dial selected which of those it was going to do.

The only thing I ever recall going wrong with it was the clutch,
which allowed the drum inertia to freewheel when it was spinning
and the gearbox changed down gear for a slower speed without
back-feeding the gearbox at high speed. It was a large coil
spring slid over the drum shaft which gripped the shaft when
driven by the gearbox, but relaxed grip if the drum was turning
faster than the gearbox output. (The machine could not reverse
the direction of the drum.) The spring broke after around 12
years, but a replacement was obtained and fitted by my father.


We had a Hotpoint Liberator about 15 years later, we must have had it
for 10 years until the bearings gave up, and I replaced it with an
identical machine from my parents-in law cellar that had little use.

The first front lording automatic I ever saw was at my next door
neighbours when I was a kid. A Bendix. I was very impressed.
--

Graham.
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