Post-war years

Now that the Siddeley garage was bare and the emergency was over it was time for a high quality car once more. This time the choice was a 1937 Rolls Royce 25/30 (chassis GGR2) with Hooper saloon bodywork from Jack Barclay Ltd. This had only covered about 10,000 miles, but no record of the price paid seems to have survived. EHS soon complained of steering wander, which was not improved by a visit to Barclay's Gurney Nutting factory. Whilst there the majestic radiator was dented and the following acerbic exchange of letters was only halted when the London depot of Rolls-Royce Ltd, at Scrubbs lane, took the car and remedied everything as well as decarbonising it for £48. EHS only drove the car for about 2,000 miles and then in May 1946 exchanged it at Jack Barclays for a Bentley 4½ with Park Ward Sports saloon body. This had been one of the last built in 1939 and confirms how much EHS must have enjoyed his previous 4½. When compared with the copious notes accompanying the previously mentioned cars this Bentley has no recorded history and indeed, Stanley Sedgwick's useful reference book does not even have a registration number for it. Again, does anyone know if it exists?

During the time that the Bentley was in Siddeley service there seems to have been a slight thaw in relations with Armstrong-Siddeley Motors Ltd. In February 1947 the then boss, H.J. Chapman, had written offering EHS, who by then had a London pied a terre, a two days' trial of his own 2 litre experimental car. After taking up the offer EHS commented about the car…"quiet, smooth and quite fast. This sounds very luke warm and I must confess that I find it difficult to be terribly enthusiastic." Even more scathing was his "it is surprising to find that one doesn't easily overtake small cars like Morris 8s on arterial roads"! Before the war EHS had negotiated a licence to use Mercedes-Benz type independent front suspension on a royalty basis. This prototype had it, but from driving it EHS felt it might just as well have had a beam axle and that the steering was clumsy. He apologised for being so blunt, and having also said he did not like the streamlined styling, he sagely pointed out that whatever his personal opinions the firm would have no difficulty in selling all they could make for a year or two. He then went on to put HRH Prince Chula of Thailand and our Lord Chancellor in touch with H.J. Chapman in an effort to get them higher up the waiting list for Lancasters. The list soon grew to 18 months. The factory promised to help and, as an aside, said that Hurricane Coupes would become the easiest to obtain.

The "friendly" relationship with the factory continued and in 1947 EHS borrowed a Cadillac they were evaluating as well as a 2½ litre Armstrong-Siddeley prototype which he was equally unflattering about. An idea of the man's standing and reputation is given by the fact that chief designer Thornett and chief development engineer Cutler were dispatched to discuss the 2½ litre car with him. Meanwhile the flack was flying from EHS's father, Lord Kenilworth, who had bought one of the new cars and was complaining of the seating and door positions. A slightly exasperated comment from the company in response reads; "when sitting in the driving seat of the Lancaster it is not an easy matter for one to see both front wings and I fear in these very advanced days the general public do not concern themselves very much about this point."

One suspects that there were few further contacts with the old firm, especially after Lord Kenilworth died in 1953.

Meanwhile EHS had been out buying new vehicles again. The first was a BSA motorcycle for his nephew Peter and then came a 2½ litre Riley. This was the actual one photographed for the Times Survey of the British Motor Car Industry in 1949. The motoring correspondent of the Times was Harold Nockolds, the author of the Rolls-Royce history Magic of a Name which EHS had enjoyed and congratulated Nockolds about. Sadly, Armstrong-Siddeley never came in for the same coverage, though its makers did ultimately commission their own public relations view of the history.

Before the war the Siddeley family had used the continent for testing the latest Armstrong-Siddeley products and EHS had developed a great rapport with the South of France. It was to there (Bandol to be precise) that the Riley went in 1949. The car averaged 23.5 mpg and the total cost, including ferries for three people staying in the best hotels was £108 for two weeks at the height of the season!

Riley, in the pre-Nuffield days, had been excellent customers of Armstrong-Siddeley, buying lots of their pre-selective gearboxes. EHS had plainly kept a soft spot for his old Coventry neighbours and he enjoyed the 2½ for many years.

Continue Ernest's story into the Bentley Episode