Lea at Francis

Sir,

Chris Mason’s letter regarding the 1929 Irish Grand Prix races asks about the person standing second from right in the picture (June, p14). It is in fact John (Jack) Lea, whom I had the pleasure of meeting several years ago and spent a very enjoyable day recalling some of his motoring experiences.

John Lea had a long and varied career in motorsport as mechanic, development engineer and occasional co-driver. He joined the experimental and service department at Lea-Francis in 1928, and I have a transcript of a talk he gave some years ago about his motor racing experiences in the 1930s in which he refers to the 1929 race, when he acted as riding mechanic to W H Green, finishing third.

When Lea-Francis went into receivership in 1931, John began working for the former chairman of Lea-Francis, Mr L T Delaney, who had bought the London Service Department of Delauney-Bellevilles and formed a new company with his son Tom and Kaye Don as fellow directors. One of the projects in which he was involved was George Eyston’s AEC diesel-engined Chrysler-chassised record car.

On hearing that Humphrey Cook and Raymond Mays were forming ERA at Bourne, John joined them, and became involved in all aspects of preparation and development of the cars up to the E-type.

John left ERA in 1938 and spent the war working for Bristol Aeroplane Co. Then he joined Jaguar’s competitions department where he was mechanic to the works team and co-driver in Leslie Johnson’s XK120 in, I believe, the 1950 Mille Miglia, as well as playing a part in the development of the C-type.

After leaving Jaguar he moved to Gretton near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, close to Prescott, where he ran the village garage with many privateer racing drivers bringing their cars to him to look after, including the lightweight XK120 and C-type of Bob Berry.

Sadly, John died a couple of years ago, but his wife Madge, now 96, is still living in Winchcombe.

I am, yours etc,
Graham Bosworth, Coventry