More "Cars in Books", December 1970

Sir,

The following extract may be of interest. It is taken from the book “Simply Churchill”, by Roy Howells (Robert Hale). The period is the early ‘sixties. “The household ran four relatively modest cars, a black Humber Pullman, used only for Sir Winston and Lady Churchill . . a dark blue Humber Super Snipe estate car, for shuttling luggage between London and Chartwell; a grey Hillman Husky, for carrying such things as parcels, groceries and logs; and a blue Morris Oxford which was Lady Churchill’s own car.

“The man who drove all these was Mr. Joe Bullock. He was not on the payroll in latter years because he worked for the Rootes group as a chauffeur and demonstrator. He was, however, made available for Sir Winston, being generally regarded as his personal driver.

“Bullock was a big man with broad shoulders, devoted to Sir Winston and first class at his job. Whenever he drove Lady Churchill it was at a steady 30 m.p.h., but when her husband was by himself in the back seat he used to encourage Bullock to go faster, tapping on the glass partition and calling out: ‘Go ON’. Whenever he felt Bullock was slow in overtaking he would lean forward and bellow: ‘NOW’. As in everything else, Sir Winston had a constant sense of urgency. It does Bullock great credit that he never really took the chances his passenger would have liked him to have taken.”

J. WILLS – Stow Longa.