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Call for help
I am very happy to announce that I became the proud owner of PK 9204, one of the four Lagonda two-litre cars prepared for the 1929 racing season by Fox & Nicholl. It was the car owned by Robin Jackson, who later had a tuning shop at Brooklands. The story of the four Lagonda cars prepared by a well-known British tuning company to compete in one of the most romantic periods of motor racing is not very well known. Some information is available, f.i. in Davey’s excellent 2 litre book, but I like to research this story in more detail, which is why this call for help. If anyone has any information on the Fox & Nicholl team from 1929 and the people involved in these four Lagonda 2 litres and would like to share this information with me, I kindly request you to contact me. Of course, PK 9204 is my prime research object, but as the cars are so connected to each other, I gather information about all four team cars.
I look for anything to make the story about these cars more complete. Pictures, memories, stories, original artefacts, publications, documents, anything. Very few pictures and information are available from the period in between when the cars were sold after the 1929 racing season and when Forshaw acquired the cars in the sixties. Some cars seem to have raced after 1929, but I found no details apart from some racing results in 1930 and 1931. Nothing much is known about the owners either, if there are any family members left, they might still have pictures. Or memories?
I will be very happy to travel to the UK to gather information, scan pictures or copy documents. If somebody has tips for visiting people or specific archives that might be interesting, please let me know.
The races in which the cars competed were;
1929 Double Twelve Brooklands
1929 BARC 6 hours Brooklands
1929 Le Mans 24 hours
1929 Irish GP
1929 RAC (Ards) TT
Some of the cars seem to have competed in races in the thirties, but until now, I couldn’t find any pictures or entry lists.PK 9201 appeared the motion picture “An alligator called Daisy” from 1955.
In over 90 years, many people got connected to these cars; drivers, mechanics, owners, etc. The lives of some of them, like Rose-Richards and Brian Lewis, are well documented, but I found very little about others, like Broomhall and Wolfe. Any information on one of the persons mentioned would be very welcome.
The drivers;
Robin Jackson (owner PK 9204)
Tim Rose-Richards
Arthur Pollard (nothing found yet)
George Roberts (nothing found yet)
Cecil Randall (nothing found yet)
Bill Edmondson (Lagonda solicitor, nothing found yet)
Frank King (Lagonda employee)
Howard Wolfe (nothing found yet)
C. A. Broomhall (PK 9204, nothing found yet)
Brian Lewis
B. E. Jervis (nothing found yet)
Johnny HindmarshThe owners;
Ivan Forshaw pictures of the restorations? Notes? Memories?
Arthur (Willard) Fox
Robert Iltyd Nicholl
Hamish Robert Drummond King (nothing found) (PK 9204)
Hugh John Burns-Jones (nothing found) (PK 9204)
Mrs Field-Richards (née Waddy) (PK 9204)
Daniel Roger Hagen, Hempstead, Norfolk (drove PK 9204 for decades as a daily driver)
Lt. MacKay RN, HMS Howe, Portland, Dorset November 1948 (PK 9201)
Capt. F.S. Prince, Ravens Nest, Beaulieu Road, Lyndhurst, Hants. June 1950 (PK 9201)
Ralph Clarke, Suffolk Power Plant & Engineering Co, Lowestoft, Suffolk (PK 9202)
H. Charles Long,39 Rosehill Park West, Sutton, Surrey October. 1951 (PK 9201)
Admiral John Roberts, HMS Ark Royal, Portsmouth – December 1946 (PK 9203)
R.G.Goslett, The Elms, Denham, Bucks – January 1949 (PK 9203)
Cowie, Kent – January 1957 (Info from Goslett, Cowie never joined the Club). (PK 9203)Others;
The company Fox & Nicholl (documents? Period pictures?)
Simon Spenceley, parts manager at Forshaw’sHopefully you can help me in my search for information on this, which is not so easy, the story is near to a hundred years old… Thank you in anticipation for any effort, tip or other help.
Jos Hugense – The Netherlands
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