Those Royal Daimlers
Sir,
My copy of Motor Sport arrived yesterday and I saw the picture of the two Royal Daimlers and read the letter about them with interest. The cars are the two 1911 57-h.p. 6-cyl. sleeve-valve models supplied to HM George V and Queen Mary in 1911 and both are fitted with Hooper limousine coachwork; as they are State cars they bear no number plates.
I am afraid that I cannot tell when the photograph was taken or where; it must be remembered these cars were in constant use by the King and Queen from 1911 right up to 1924. I believe I am correct in saying that Charles Y. Knight took one of them to America with him when King George finished using it; the other one passed to Lord Craven’s family and was rebodied as a Weymann limousine and later owned for a time by Cecil Clutton, but I am afraid that I can tell you no more than this.
John Oldham – Grouville
[I rode in it.—Ed.]
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Sir,
I was interested to see the photograph on page 245 of the March issue showing the Royal Daimlers. About 1962 a garage in London Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex had one of these types for sale. It was the same style and coloured black with dark green lower sides. It looked as if it had been made the day before; and I was told by the garage owner it had belonged to Colonel Sir Francis Whitmore, who had at that time just died. It was also claimed that the late Colonel had in turn purchased the car many years earlier from Buckingham Palace, when he became Lord Lieutenant of Essex. I was shown a small metal cylinder which was lined with green baize and contained the original spare light bulbs. The tyres on the car were alleged to be the original ones fitted.
The car was magnificent; and the robbing, capitalistic, mercenary garage owner was asking the earth for it—£275!
D. S. Hurrell – Westcliff-on-Sea.