For those who don't already know, there is also a memorial statue to Jean-Pierre Wimille at the Porte Dauphine on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.

Edward

Well I finally visited and photographed Mike Spence's grave in Slough Cemetery this afternoon, a modest black marble cross on a black plinth with his engraved name and dates. Incidentally my informant was quite wrong to describe that area of the cemetery as overgrown, I'm pleased to say . I'll post an image when I discover why my Fuji whatsit is playing up.

What really surprises me quite often is that even if you had been a very famous and talented racing driver, your grave/tomb stone can be very minimalistic (like in the case of Wimille, quite an extra-ordinary racer)... Sometimes the burial places of past masters are very hard to find.

I'll second that. The first graves of GP drivers I visited were those of Mike Hawthorn and Mike Hailwood which were really nice and well looked after, but others such as those Alan Stacey and Graham Hill are in quite poor condition. Roger Williamson's ashes are in a family grave but there's no name inscribed on the headstone. All in all I also find it surprising but I guess it's down to the families. Still at least these graves are getting documented so they aren't forgotten. Having said that, I attended a wedding at Bromsgrove a couple of weekends ago and it wasn't until I returned home that I realised I had been only a couple of miles or so from Peter Collins' grave at Stone, Worcestershire. Dooh!

One of the most satisfying aspects of this research is receiving emails from the must unlikely people. Only today I received an email from Bruce Anderson, the son of Bob Anderson, complimenting me on the bio of his father but offering not only to correct my inaccuracies but to send a better image. Last week I was in touch with the American niece of Woolf Barnato and was able to tell her about a Terence Cuneo print I have at home called 'The Blue Train' depicting her father racing the Blue Train from Cannes to Calais in March 1930. I've also recieved a couple of nice emails from Evi Gurney about various drivers such as Edgar Barth. Then there are regular emails from two European friends who feed me more morsels. A very satisfying pastime indeed...

Sorry, that should have read "depicting her UNCLE".

Paul, you are doing a great job here. It's about time that these drivers - especially those who have died on the track - get some proper recognition. I've found the graves of Joe Fry and Alan Stacey during my travels by looking in the churchyards of their home towns and I discovered their resting places very easily. Others have been more elusive - I couldn't find Peter Whitehead, John Taylor or Bob Anderson in their local churchyards. Sometimes there is no headstone in the case of cremation - I don't believe there is any such memorial for Stuart Lewis-Evans in Bexleyheath.

Peter Ryan is buried in the churchyard at Mont-Tremblant where his family developed the ski resort and presumably near the former GP track.

Sorry Paul - I really admire your work but this surely stretches gullibility too far - too many people survived who knew 'Willie' well - the story is deeply flawed rubbish...

DCN

Doug

I greatly admire your writing and opinions, but I've done no more than repeat what I read in the Robert Ryan novel "Early one morning". In the Authors notes on p.336, Ryan goes to great lengths to discuss what was fact and what was fiction, and without going through his sources methodically, I've simply repeated them and allowed others to make up their own minds. Fact or fantasy - who knows?

I think Mr Ryan does.

I can tell you he's changed his opinions since the Sunday Times Magazine article ....

I've had some "interesting" (but confidential - sorry!) emails since Mattijs published "Different Danger" and there's still research going on behind the scenes. I also overheard a very interesting conversation in a pub in Sparkford ....

Quote - "I was fortunate to have use of the unstoppable energy and drive of the inimitable Jack Bond......who worked closely with Beatrice van Lith, Robert Benoist's granddaughter, to uncover many of the details used herein, principally Williams' survival of Sachsenhausen".

"Richard Smith........trawled through the Public Records Ofice at Kew........proving beyond any doubt that Williams was not executed at the camp. To get an admission from SOE/MI6 that the files are wrong is a remarkable feat."

"Although Williams was officially notified as executed at Sachsenhausen in March 1945, in May 1947 a communication was sent from Berlin by MI6 to SOE asking for help in relocating Grover-Williams to the USA. Sometime later a man calling himself Georges Tambal, closely resembling Williams, an expert on race cars and with the same date of birth, moved into Yvonne (Grover-Williams) farmhouse. She was to claim he was her cousin".

Absolutely intriguing, so read the book for yourselves and make your own minds up.

Clive Dunfee, Putney Vale Cemetery, 29th September 1932
Pat Fairfield, Greatness Park Cemetery, Sevenoaks, 29th June 1937
Percy Lambert, Brompton Cemetery, 4th November 1913

KJJ

Thanks for Clive Dunfee's and Pat Fairfield's details. Percy Lambert's page already exists at
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?p...ob=n&GRid=9493&

David

Bob Anderson's grave is at Hendon St.Mary's Churchyard, Hendon; Stuart Lewis-Evans had a service at Christ Church, Bexleyheath, a cremation at Charing Crematorium in Kent, then his ashes were placed in the family grave in Plumstead Cemetery. Both of these drivers now have pages in Find-a-Grave.

I have some names in search of their graves........



Giuseppe Campari.
Ken Tyrrell.
Reg Parnell.
Giulio Cabianca.

Reg Parnell's funeral service was at Findern Church, Derbyshire on 10th January 1964

Mike Spence's grave in Slough Cemetery.

Roger Williamson's ashes were placed in his family's grave in Gilroes Cemetery, Leicester.

Paul,

You may be aware of this . The TT Riders Assoc. website gives obits of its members and I see today that two of my favorites of the past have died. Gyula Marsovsky Hungarian then Swiss good rider of a Matchless G50 and Max Deubals passenger Emil Horner.

and sadly Tarquino Provini MV stalwart and TT winner

Yesterday, I was at Canals Cemetery (Valencia, Spain) taking some photos of the grave of the rider Ricardo Tormo. In few weeks I hope we can see it at Find a Grave.

I want not to forget Sir William Lyons, Jaguar founder.............

Thank you Bernard, I wasn't aware of the site. My flight to the USA is now only ten days away - I'm riding my motorbike to the West Coast and back for three months - so I think these will be my last entries for a few months. Thank you for the tip off.

Have a good trip

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?p...csr&GSvcid=4821

Recent additions are - Bob Anderson, Woolf Barnato, Stefan Bellof, Chris Bristow, Jay Chamberlain, Johnny Claes, Pat Fairfield, Guy Mairesse, Willy Mairesse, John Parry-Thomas, Moises Solano, Bill Whitehouse and Manfred Winkelhock.

I have written to Richie Ginther's son in California about his father. So that's that for a few months, however I'll keep popping in at internet cafes around the US.

Someone knows where was buried Alejandro De Tomaso??????????.

Good trip, Paul..........


Recently I added at Find a Grave a , a memorial for Sir William Lyons, not a racing driver but a great man...........

And the wife and kids brought him back to there home in monaco if I remember corectly.

I am searching too the burial places of Alfred Neubauer and Ernst Von Delius. Some years ago, a member of this forum told me about where is buried Von Delius, but I forgot.............

I wonder if anyone knows the location of the last resting place of George Robson, the 1946 Indy 500 winner, killed at Lakewood a few months later? Though born in Newcastle, he emigrated to America and is presumably buried there?

As the sixtieth anniversaries are coming up, I'm putting together a short piece for the news site of the office Fantasy Formula 1 game (yes, we try and educate the buggers!) I've been able to obtain his birth certificate and, though the address on it no longer exists, I've been able to find out where the street used to be (scarily, it's about half a mile from where I work).

Being able to locate his burial site would help to round off the piece.

Thanks in advance,

APL

George's nephew (Hal's son) used to be a member on an American racing history board but seems to have now left as he's no longer in the membership list. However, check your PMs Alan

Many thanks!

APL

Somewhere I have a picture of Bernd Rosemeyer's burial site in Berlin and right alongside of him is his friend Ernst von Delius. Look there.

I recently received an email from Dr Bret Ginther, son of Richie Ginther -

"...he passed away in France shortly after attending a race event in England celebrating Goodyear's 100th Grand Prix Victory. My father earned them their first victory in Mexico in 1965. He was cremated in France and brought to the States and eventually back to his house in ROSARITO BEACH, MEXICO. His ahses were spread into the Pacific Ocean at the beach near his home. His wife Cleo spread the ashes whilst I looked on." I may be wrong but I believe he returned to England for a BRM anniversary.


I've also been contacted again by the Swiss Embassy in London and told that the headstone of former World Champion Sidecar Racer Fritz Scheidegger has been restored to it's former place because of his fame. Apparently, and astonishingly to me, in Switzerland headstones are removed after thirty or so years. Further details are on www.findagrave.com I have a grainy picture of his headstone from a newspaper which I'll attempt to put on here when I return to the UK.

Paul R (a very hot Tucson AZ)

Just a brief post to say that today I visited the grave of Ronnie Bucknum which is in San Luis Obispo, California. I can't post images out here and will do when I return (in August).

Cross-posted from another thread:

I came across these pictures on the Axis History Forum. Taken on September 20th 1942 at Makijivka (Makejewka) in the Ukraine, they show the grave of Rudolf Hasse of Auto Union, who had died on the Eastern Front on August 12th.





A bigger shot which can't be hotlinked:

http://forum.axishistory.com/files/graf_rudolf_hasse_943.jpg

The location of this grave is now lost.

Wasn't Goodyear's 100th win at Hockenheim, 1977?

EDIT: I just did a bit of digging, and I see that Ginther died in 1989 - which would coincide with BRM's 50th anniversary would it not?

Click on the thumbnail for this one:





How do you mean lost?

Willy Mairesse's tomb can be found at the Momignies cemetary near Chimay in the Southern part of Belgium. He rests in a family tomb:


Pictures courtesy of my friend Chris van de Wiele.

The burial location of Lucien Bianchi is still a mystery but it's in Belgium, probably the cemetary of Ixelles. We've asked Jacques Swaters' daughter Florence last week and she'll look it up.
Jacques Swaters carried the coffin but he couldn't remember exactly where it was.

'How do you mean lost?'
erm.........no-one now knows where it is ???

Nope. 40th.


It's in an area which saw some pretty intense conflict between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army. I doubt there's much left that was standing in 1941. And in the atmosphere of the time it wouldn't surprise me to find that the Red Army had just bulldozed the whole cemetery out of existence.

Dear all,

please find two pictures of Jochen Rindt's grave in Graz. What you can see is the huge natural rock, which describes his name, born and death and Grand Prix Worldchampion 1970.

I was together with Eddie Dennis there, he was Jochen's mechanic at Lotus. Eddie still keeps the bows of the laurel Jochen won at Hockenheim, his very last ones. We put these bows over his grave. The warm sun covered our small ceremony in a wonderful light. A quite touching moment for all of us.

www.jochen-rindt.at/Main/Kurzbiografie/Spurensuche/Jochen_Graz_1_kl.jpg
www.jochen-rindt.at/Main/Kurzbiografie/Spurensuche/Jochen_Graz_2kl.jpg



www.jochen-rindt.at

Not a racing driver, but an important figure in pre-war racing: Albert Victor (Ebby) Ebblewhite died on 11th December 1939 and was buried four days later at the Church of St Peter-on-the-Forest, Woodford New Road, Upper Walthamstow.

Source: The Times Dec 13th 1939

I'm pleased this great thread has returned to the top - it's a useful source of reference and every one involved has done a superb job.

I wanted to ask a couple of questions.

Two friends of mine are at Monza testing later this month and would like to visit the Ascari resting places in the Cimitero Monumentale. It is a large place - is there a key to the locations or can anyone explain where the graves are found in the 300m x 600m area?

Also, is Michele Alboreto buried in his home city of Milan?

David

Almost every municipal cemetery will have an office with staff who can direct you to the location of the family grave.

Michele Alboreto's grave is indeed in the Parocchia Gesu Salvatore, Basiglio, Milan.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?p...Rid=13373739vid

If it interests you, I can also give you a link to my unfortunately named 'virtual cemetery' which lists the final resting places of over 120 racing drivers and a number of racing motorcyclists as well.

It is so easy for our former heroes to slip away into obscurity and the main reason I've taken so much interest in the subject.

Former works Honda rider Gary Hocking's grave was found in a South Wales cemetery in a badly neglected condition and was 'adopted' by a local band of motorcyclists who now care for it.

Paul.

For racing drivers -

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?p...csr&GSvcid=4821

...and for motorcycle racers -

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?p...csr&GSvcid=4823

Thanks Paul. Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed your trip across the States. Keep up the good work.

Does anyone know where former Indy Car driver Mike mosley is buried? I believe it's in my area, but I don't know where.