|
History |
A silver lady under my bonnet: Neville Minchin, an appreciation
A silver lady under my bonnet: Neville Minchin, an appreciation Author's note: this article first appeared as a booklet to accompany the Rolls-Royce Foundation's reprint in 2002 of Minchin's crime novel 'N.7' (hard to find in the original) and the first-ever publication of his novel 'Murder in the Monte Carlo Rally'. This publishing milestone was initiated and heroically researched by Mrs. Mermie Karger of Pennsylvania. The two books with the booklet are available from the RROC's Store at 191 Hempt Rd., Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., PA 17050 for $40.00 or from the RREC Club Shop. The novels make memorable reading with their many Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars prominent. Throughout his long life Neville Minchin was a Rolls-Royce man in every sense. As a member of the upper middle class, and with ample means, he mixed with many distinguished figures. As a businessman he knew Rolls-Royce as a company and was friendly with Royce and Ernest Hives (later Lord Hives, Works Manager at the company). As a motorist he extolled the virtues of the Rolls-Royce through his ownership of many different models. And as an author he wrote two motoring classics and a more minor work which put Rolls-Royce at the forefront. In fact, without Minchin much information about Rolls-Royce history and its aura would have been lost. Early LifeGeorge Robert Neville Minchin was born at Windsor, Berkshire, on 24th September 1888, the son of Professor George Minchin. His parents were Irish and their Catholic faith sustained Minchin all his life. One branch of the family, the Bells, enabled Minchin to claim his great uncle as Alexander Graham Bell, the Edinburgh-born inventor of the telephone. As Minchin relates in 'Under my bonnet', his father was professor of applied mathematics at the Royal Indian Engineering College at Coopers Hill near Englefield Green in Surrey. All his life Minchin relished mentioning the great and famous whom he knew or met, so it is no great surprise to learn that Queen Victoria herself once stopped her carriage in Windsor Great Park to examine Minchin in his pram! He attended Scaitcliffe Preparatory School at Englefield Green, and from 1902 Tonbridge, a fine public school in Kent, before going up to Christ's College at Cambridge University in 1907 and taking his M.A. in 1910. The family had moved to Oxford around 1908 when Professor Minchin joined Queen's College. The first motor-carsHis days at Cambridge saw Minchin confirmed in his love of sporting cars. He learned to drive on an Argyll in 1907. In those halcyon days of Edwardian England and in the early post-War years he kept company, both on the track and socially, with the racing fraternity. Guy Knowles (later the originator of the Iris 'I ride in silence' car) became a great friend. A fellow undergraduate was E. H. Lees who in due course came to own the original 1911 London to Edinburgh Silver Ghost chassis 1701. Minchin drove this car several times, sometimes reaching 78 m.p.h. His own transport at Cambridge was more mundane, a 1905 3 h.p. Triumph motorcycle purchased in 1907, replaced soon after with a 1907 model and several others. In 1910 he bought a single-cylinder Sizaire et Naudin car from Mann Egerton which, like other sporting motorists, he used untaxed! Twenty-six further cars followed, mostly high performance types. They were all registered illicitly as BJ-578 (the plate formerly on a steam traction engine) which Minchin had 'picked up' off the floor when buying the Sizaire and had not registered with the authorities!
Early in the list was the Darracq used by Mr. George in the 1908 T.T. race, the Four Inch as it became known, on the Isle of Man. It was acquired from Malcolm Campbell. Minchin subsequently took Campbell's 1906 9,637 c.c. 59.6 h.p. Darracq (the first car Campbell called "Blue Bird", winner of the Vanderbilt Cup in America in 1907); a Napier; four Ariel 50/60 h.p. cars for trading; a 1909 'Prince Henry' 27 h.p. 'Billiken' Metallurgique; a 40 h.p. Metallurgique; the 1913 ex-Hancock racing Vauxhall and then a 'Prince Henry' Vauxhall in 1914. An engineering apprenticeship with a small Birmingham firm followed his university
days. After a year he left to join two unnamed friends to form the Efandem Company
of Wolverhampton north of Birmingham, makers of electrical components; where
he was in charge of motor electrical equipment. The name was no doubt derived
from their initials F. and M. He next moved to the Scott Starter Co. (makers
of an electric starter before 1916, one being fitted to Minchin's 1906 Darracq),
and then joined the struggling battery maker Peto & Radford at Ashtead in
Surrey and turned its fortunes around. He became joint managing director in
1915, later merging the firm with Pritchett & Gold. In early 1914 he had
bought a new 26/60 h.p. Metallurgique and used it for wartime deliveries from
his factory to a Government store. He claimed up to 1,000 miles in a week might
be done.
Married and Business LifeMinchin first married a Miss Gwendolen Maud (b.1891, surname unknown). It seems there was later a divorce and she predeceased him on 10th September 1975. In November 1940 Minchin next married Miss Gladys (middle name Grace) whose family name also cannot be traced and whom he affectionately called Gipsy. There were no children of either marriage. The life Minchin and Gwendolen, and then Minchin and Gladys, had together was a very sociable one of travel, race meetings, and tennis parties. Minchin competed in tennis tournaments although his motoring interest did not extend to participating in races. He preferred to stay on friendly terms with the famous racing drivers who attended Brooklands and Continental events. Not only did he have a gift for friendship but perhaps too an eye for what was good for his battery business. Pritchett & Gold later merged with the Electrical Power Storage Co., founded in 1882 and Minchin served here for the rest of his business life, becoming chairman in 1939. It was his link to Peto & Radford who supplied batteries for Rolls-Royce cars that brought him into contact with Henry Royce (1863-1933). In the last years of the nineteenth century Pritchett Brothers were agents in the south of England for Royce Ltd. dynamos. These were used with Pritchett batteries for domestic electricity in country houses. Later, as Pritchett & Gold, the company had new factories at Dagenham in Essex (opposite what would later be the gigantic Ford works) and it was for Pritchett & Gold that Royce made an electric motor in 1902 for use in a Pritchett motor-car. Pritchett & Gold, in association with E.P.S. Ltd., went on to absorb parts of the Tudor Group (when Tudor's European operations were broken up), and Peto & Radford, whose works were initially in Ashtead, Surrey and headquarters at 50 Grosvenor Gardens, London S.W.1. Batteries were sold under the "Dagenite" name derived from the Dagenham works. One of their advertisements proclaimed 'Right for Rolls-Royce, right for you' which must surely have been Minchin's work! Eventually a majority stake in Pritchett & Gold itself was taken by market leader Chloride Ltd. in 1928, largely at Minchin's instigation. The latter firm had been founded ca 1900 at Clifton Junction in Manchester. Chloride's famous "Exide" brand (originating in the U.S. Exide Starter Battery Co.) was also supplied to Rolls-Royce. These batteries were made at its Clifton Junction works. (It would be as well to clarify a further so-called Rolls-Royce connection to the battery world arising from a Claude Johnson as managing-director of the D.P. Battery Co. This company had been founded in 1888 at Charlton in London and later moved to Bakewell in Derbyshire around 1900. It too was absorbed by Chloride ca 1928. The D.P. stood for Dujardin et Planté, the French originators of the particular battery design. The Johnson in question was not, however, the Claude G. Johnson who was managing-director of Rolls-Royce but rather W. Claude Johnson, the electrical pioneer.) The Rolls-Royce ConnectionIn the 1920s Minchin became friendly with Henry Royce and sometimes stayed
with him at his house 'Villa Mimosa' at Le Canadel in the south of France when
both were wintering there. Minchin also knew William R. Morris of Morris Cars
and later arranged to introduce him to Royce. As Minchin relates, the meeting
took place in St. Raphael on 27th February 1925. Although Minchin rarely, if
ever, used Morris products he did own twenty-three Rolls-Royce cars. These included
two early Silver Ghosts - 1911 chassis 1527 fitted with a 1919 tourer body and
owned by Minchin in 1920 only when he was living in central London at 34 Westminster
Mansions, S.W.1; and 1912 chassis 2125 fitted with a ca 1921 tourer body and
owned from 1921 when Minchin was living in London N.W.8.
By late 1921 Minchin owned 1920 Silver Ghost 86EE, a lightweight tourer registered R-4873 which was described in The Autocar for 21 January 1922 p.99-100 and 29 December p.1369. Minchin's attention to detail was evident from the petrol tin storage at the back of the body and from the records on the battery box lid showing its maintenance. It seems this was a chassis Minchin bought secondhand and had altered with new springs, probably for a replacement lighter body. He also owned Bentleys - he was friendly with engineers at Bentley Motors and was soon the owner of a 1924 Bentley 3-litre chassis 691 James Young allweather (with Beatonson head) shown in The Autocar 15 August 1924 p.280. More Rolls-Royces followed including a Phantom I in October 1925, short chassis 119MC H. J. Mulliner Weymann saloon; and 20 h.p. cars GRK22 Maddox saloon, GBM61 Park Ward saloon, and ending with GFN8 H. J. Mulliner Weymann saloon (Autocar 1 March 1929 p.446). In the 1930s the cars were 1933 20/25 h.p. GBA72 Carlton coupe bought in 1938 and 1935 GYH67 James Young coupe also secondhand; and further Bentleys followed, 1934 3½-litre B73AE H. J. Mulliner saloon some time after 1936, B76AH saloon de ville bought secondhand, B16DK bought new with H. J. Mulliner fabric body (Autocar 12 July 1935 p.95), 4¼-litre B30GA on which he fitted the fabric body from B16DK and, it seems, an unknown 1938 4¼-litre as well.
In The Motor for 4 February 1930 Minchin recalled his sixty-one cars up to
that point and many motorcycles. He referred to six Sizaires and several Metallurgiques.
But it seems pointless to list all his cars because Minchin vouchsafed to us
in 'Under my bonnet' what his tally actually was - by 1950 he had had 13 motorcycles
(12 Triumphs and one Vindec) and 154 cars! The one fairly consistent theme in
his choices was lightweight coachwork. He also brought interesting cars to the
Derby factory when he thought they would influence Rolls-Royce designers. Minchin's friendship with Royce was maintained by a regular correspondence
from the 1920s. Sir Max Pemberton's biography of Royce (1934) contains many
letters from the 1924-32 period supplied by Minchin. We have to be grateful
to him for recording many of Royce's earliest recollections. Without his interest
in the origins of Rolls-Royce much would have been lost. Minchin himself had
built a villa near Cannes in 1929-30, Villa Beau Geste in Avenue Fiesole, and
was mainly resident in France until the 1950s although he also had a London
address at 12 Lincoln House in Basil Street, Knightsbridge. The villa in Cannes
was first preceded by a necessary, three-car, motor house! Minchin launched
it with a 'garage warming' in the company of many guests, Royce possibly amongst
them. He was then able to motor down from London in his Citroen to supervise
the building of the villa itself.
Minchin's friendship with Royce received a further filip on 17th August 1931 when he joined Sir John Prestige, also in the electrical industry, in taking the Science Museum's 1905 10 h.p. Rolls-Royce 20162 to West Wittering in Sussex for Sir Henry to see. A short film of this encounter survives for which we have to thank Minchin's friend Ivan Evernden at Rolls-Royce, Crewe, who had copies made of the fragile original.
Minchin also advised Royce on potential mergers for his Royce Ltd. crane company in Manchester. The business was in decline and could not match the resources of large makers and electrical combines such as English Electric. After Royce's death Rolls-Royce Ltd. maintained contact with Minchin and he was invited to give his opinion of the new Phantom III in 1935 when he was loaned a car for test. On this occasion his judgment was not altogether favourable! Another interesting connection for Minchin was his chairmanship of the French Rolls-Royce retailer Franco-Britannic Automobiles in the late 1930s although by now he was driving a Voisin as well as a Rolls-Royce.
Minchin The WriterPerhaps the most intriguing result of the friendship with Royce was Minchin's first book, 'N.7: a novel', published in 1930 and dedicated to Royce. It was the result of a wager between the two men, Royce not believing that Minchin could write a thriller! He had mentioned to Minchin that an Edgar Wallace style of thriller would be difficult to write but Minchin took up the challenge. The book mirrors the journeys through central France on Route Nationale Sept (N.7) taken by Rolls-Royce engineers and drivers when they brought cars down to Le Canadel for Royce to try. The combination of high society, the French Riviera, powerful cars, and a criminal element, also owes much to the books of Dornford Yates who was a popular author at this time. Not long after publication Minchin actually met Edgar Wallace (1875-1932), also a Rolls-Royce owner, on the Paris to London train! Throughout his life he met so many famous people by chance that this encounter with Wallace must not have seemed out of the ordinary to him. Minchin did not publish again until 1950 when his motoring classic 'Under my bonnet' appeared. (First published by Foulis it was reprinted in 1964 by MBC, the Motor-racing Book Club.) It is the nearest thing to Minchin's memoirs, arranged around his life with cars. It was an immediate success and captured for a new generation both the atmosphere of the golden age of motoring and the outlook of a gentleman of leisure. Minchin once told the South African Rolls-Royce enthusiast Bob Johnston that a bit of exaggeration did no harm in telling a good story and the book certainly shows it, without compromising too many of the facts and the flavour of the times. The former editor of Motor Sport magazine, Bill Boddy, described it as 'that best of motoring tales'.
Changing TimesMinchin returned to England for the duration of the Second World War and was unfortunate to lose his house in a fire though saving much of the contents. In securing another home in 1945 he met the Hon. Lady Shelley-Rolls (1872-1961) when he rented a house in central London owned by the Rolls family estate. She was the sister of the Hon. Charles S. Rolls (1877-1910) and widow of Sir John Shelley, Bt. As with Royce, Minchin delved into Rolls's early years in conversation with his new landlady. In 1946 he returned to live in the south of France where his villa and contents had been left undamaged by its German occupiers. It was in this time that he began to reminisce about his motoring life and was invited to contribute to Motor Sport for its January 1948 issue about the 149 cars he had owned until then. Minchin made a trip to South Africa in late 1948, when finding the south of France increasingly expensive or uncongenial. Here, on impulse, he bought the small but exclusive St. James Hotel on Main Road in St. James, an enclave in the False Bay area near Cape Town. He took over the entire staff and its well-known manager and caterer in a company called False Bay Hotels. He and Gladys moved to Cape Town permanently in about 1950.
South Africa was by now more aligned with his political outlook and moreover
his old motoring friend Harry Knox, a nephew of Lord Lonsdale, also lived there.
Another motoring pioneer retired there was William F. Bradley, French correspondent
of The Autocar. The newly-purchased St. James Hotel, a seaside establishment,
catered for what would have been called a better class of person as well as
accommodating some permanent residents. On one occasion Minchin proudly recorded
five dukes in residence! The building is now a retirement home appropriately
enough.
Minchin did not of course run the hotel itself. He and Gladys lived seventy-five miles away in a house called 'Connemara' at Montagu. Its charms included a small thatched chapel. In old age he met many significant Rolls-Royce enthusiasts, and was especially friendly with Bob Johnston who now lived in Cape Town and owned 1921 Silver Ghost 45SG. Minchin had seen the car at the St. James Hotel during Johnston's honeymoon. Johnston was able to assist Minchin a little on his current book project. This was made even easier when, in 1961, the Minchins moved into a 1920s mansion at 27 Belvedere Avenue in Oranjezicht on the slopes of Table Mountain above Cape Town and close to the Johnstons. Much of this next book, 'The Silver Lady', was written by Minchin in the Edwardian atmosphere of the Mount Nelson Hotel, appropriate for someone who had spent a lifetime at the best European watering holes.
The Final YearsIn his final years Minchin lived in the exclusive San Martini Gardens apartments in Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town. An important visitor here was the late Kenneth Neve, managing-director of Turner & Newall in England, who was restoring the original 1911 London to Edinburgh Silver Ghost chassis 1701. Minchin confided to Neve that Royce had teased him about the hero of 'N.7' driving a 3-litre Bentley whilst the villain drove a Silver Ghost! Actually it was a Phantom I, or simply a 40/50 in Royce's mind. Minchin's last Rolls-Royce car was a 1951 Silver Dawn chassis SFC56 registered CBR-37 in the Robertson district not far from Cape Town. In 1955 the car was used for a tour of southern Europe during which Minchin renewed his acquaintance with Marquis Don Carlos de Salamanca, the Spanish aristocrat who was the legendary Rolls-Royce agent in Madrid from 1913 and was still. Minchin sold this car in the 1960s. In 1961 'The Silver Lady' was finally published, his last book. It was a semi-fictional account of the 1912 Rolls-Royce chassis 2208, told by the car itself. It incorporated all the famous exploits of the early Rolls-Royce cars in peace and war. Ironically, this car was first owned by a baronet who lived at Englefield Green, where Minchin had resided with his family in his early years. The book became a vehicle for many of Minchin's motoring exploits, and his many friends also made appearances. Other books were in preparation. The two works of fiction were 'Murder in the Monte Carlo Rally' which involved Rolls-Royce cars, and in 1954 'The tragic gem' (translated by a friend into French as 'Le talisman tragique'). Try as he might he could not find a publisher. He then began work on his 'memoirs' entitled 'Kings, commoners, and dogs' (later provisionally retitled 'Posh people' and ready by 1967). This book recycled many of the stories to be found in 'Under my bonnet' and hardly justified the term 'memoirs' because Minchin did not write about his personal or business life. In 1972 a book of travel followed, 'Adventures by road, rail and sea', again with more of Minchin's anecdotes but it too failed to find a publisher. It was his farewell to a vanished age. This most 'clubable' of men had seen the less frantic times he loved give way to the jet age and baser manners. There was no time anymore for the gracious way of life he knew. He died on 17th August 1977. His effects were sold by Ashby Galleries in Cape Town. After his death it was learned that he had paid all the board and upkeep for his motoring friend Harry Knox whose last years in Cape Town were marked by straitened circumstances in the rundown Railway Hotel at Wellington in the Cape. Gladys outlived Minchin although unable to look after herself in her last years. In his will Minchin directed that his estate be shared between his old Cambridge college and Trinity College, Dublin both of which still benefit. Whilst outwardly snobbish Minchin had a sentimental side and an easy manner when in the company of people whose interests he shared.
One of the lasting memorials to Minchin is his famous collection of bound volumes of both The Autocar and Flight. How The Autocar collection was created forms a colourful chapter in 'Under my bonnet'. In due course the collection was given to Rolls-Royce Ltd. at Crewe and many years later, in the 1970s, they deposited it with the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. The volumes of Flight were given to the Royal Air Force at Farnborough. Although Minchin represents a bygone age one is easily drawn to the obvious delight he took from his varied experiences and the famous people he knew. His books will remain motoring classics. He wished his epitaph to be Alexander Pope's line on Addison 'Who gained no title, and who lost no friend'.
AcknowledgementsMy thanks to Bob Johnston, Cape Town, for access to the Minchin papers (now deposited with the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation in England) and for help with details of Minchin's life; to Mrs. Elizabeth Spoor in Western Australia for help with Cape Town connections; to Norman Lindsay, Stewart Thorpe, and Bill Snook, in England for help with battery industry information; to E. John Warburton for The Autocar 8 Jan. 1916 p.45-6 on Minchin's Darracq Blue Bird; to Mrs. Elaine Hall for information and photographs; Robin Barraclough for information about motoring thrillers; and to Mrs. Mermie Karger in Pennsylvania for getting me hooked on Minchin's novel in the first place!
|
Clan Foundry Belper
Club History
People
