168 replies to this topic

[funformula]

Auto Union driver Rudolf Hasse, winner of the 1937 Belgian GP, died from dysentery in a military hospital at the east front in Russia in 1942.

[Sterzo]

... As specialists, they might in any case have been in reserved occupations and exempted from call-ups...

That's consistent with my father's experience. He was a car mechanic (not a racing mechanic), working for Junior TT winner Cyril Williams at his garage in Wolverhampton. He spent the war servicing army trucks and armoured cars, sometimes testing them on Cannock Chase, and delivering them to army depots in convoys.

[Vitesse2]

That's consistent with my father's experience. He was a car mechanic (not a racing mechanic), working for Junior TT winner Cyril Williams at his garage in Wolverhampton. He spent the war servicing army trucks and armoured cars, sometimes testing them on Cannock Chase, and delivering them to army depots in convoys.

Much of this has probably been lost in the mists of time and the strictures of wartime censorship, but - for example - Allards got a contract servicing Ford vehicles for the British army; as you might imagine, they were pretty busy, given that a lot of private cars, vans and trucks had been requisitioned, especially after so much equipment was lost in France in 1940. Many of those vehicles, once they'd outlived their usefulness, ended their days being broken up for scrap, spares and rubber reclamation in a scrapyard in Crystal Palace Park.

 

Thomson & Taylors had an interesting war too. They were sub-contracted to build components for for Noel Macklin's Fairmile boat company, which constructed MTBs and MGBs, and later developed a lucrative sideline in the renovation of spare parts salvaged from crashed German warplanes. These were supplied to the RAF's specialist 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight – popularly known as the Rafwaffe – which evaluated and demonstrated captured planes.

[fannum]

A lot of WWII deaths reported involved the French Resistance, which was not just two factions: pro-French and pro-Vichy/German. Many layers of Communism, French regionalism, Royalist holdouts, political and tribal agendas and grudges were being played out ... and still are to this day.

The situation in Spain was and is a microcosm of the French, and the Italian partisans defy any reasonable analyisis with the labor, financial and crime factions involved.
I don't know where to start with the Greek/Balkans regions ...

[Vitesse2]

Brooklands racer Harold Walter Purdy was a civilian casualty during WW2. On September 8th 1944 The Autocar reported that he had recently been killed by a flying bomb. He's on CWGC, which records he died on August 22nd in Kensington, aged 43.

 

https://www.cwgc.org...d-walter-purdy/

[ReWind]

Thanks, Richard.
So, this

b. 13/02/1902 - Paddington (Australie) d. 22/04/1944 - Kensington (Angleterre)

has to be corrected.
Strange that his age was given as 43 because I haven't seen anything else than 1902 as his birth year.

[Geoff E]

Brooklands racer Harold Walter Purdy was a civilian casualty during WW2. On September 8th 1944 The Autocar reported that he had recently been killed by a flying bomb.

 

The GRO Death Registration index suggests that his mother died in the same incident.  

 

Re his mother: If her DoB was 1872 (as suggested by the 1939 Register), she would have been aged 72 at death, not 76 as recorded in the Death Index.  Ages are as given by the person registering the death, not by official documentation.

 

The 1921 census age for Harold is consistent with a birth in Feb 1902.  His mother would have been aged 75 at death if her age in 1921 was correct!

[Doug Nye]

During recent work immersing me in pre-WW1 racing, it has been interesting to note the number of 'Grand Prix' racing drivers whose first names (and their nationality) have proved difficult to verify.  For example 1907 GP de l'ACF, driver 'Page' of Motobloc...  How many first names for the otherwise surname-only list can one find?  I mean this just for general interest spare-time pursuit, it is NOT a specific question for my own purposes.  

 

DCN

[Tim Murray]

There’s a very ancient thread which came up with some suggestions for those unknown first names of early Grand Prix drivers, but no-one had anything on ‘Page’.

Grand Prix centenary

[Vitesse2]

During recent work immersing me in pre-WW1 racing, it has been interesting to note the number of 'Grand Prix' racing drivers whose first names (and their nationality) have proved difficult to verify.  For example 1907 GP de l'ACF, driver 'Page' of Motobloc...  How many first names for the otherwise surname-only list can one find?  I mean this just for general interest spare-time pursuit, it is NOT a specific question for my own purposes.  

 

DCN

The only person recorded under the surname Page in Braunbeck's Sport-Lexikon is a lady called Adelheid Page, who was Swiss and then lived in a castle she had restored in the town of Cham, on the shores of Lake Zug. She was, however, a member of the German KAC - Kaiserlicher Automobil-Club - which seems a bit odd, given that background. Her maiden name was Schwerzmann and she was married to an American industrialist called George Ham Page. They had one son, whose name was either George (according to Adelheid's Wikipedia page) or Fred (according to Chamapedia) - although they do agree on the dates; 1877-1930.

 

No mention of any motor sporting experience but it appears Fred/George wasn't short of a Swiss franc or two. Circumstantial, obviously, but stranger things have turned out to be true!

[Vitesse2]

L'Auto's preview of the race says that Page (no first name given of course), the only one of the three Motobloc drivers they'd previously encountered, had recently driven for Decauville, "en compagnie de Théry and Ullmann, et il appartient à la meilleure génération de conducteurs."

 

So who - come to that - was Ullmann? Braunbeck has a motor dealer called Ullmann listed in Charlottenburg, but nothing else as far as I can see.

[ReWind]

That is Fred (or George) Page (from Richard's research).

And that is the racing driver at the 1912 GP de l'A.C.F.

Different ones obviously.

[Doug Nye]

Thank you both - first surname to be considered, that's surprisingly intriguing...

 

DCN

[Lee Nicolle]

A motorcycle endurance rider killed in WW2 was a friend of my fathers, a chap called Doug Bilney. My father ended up with his 350 Triumph after the war.His mothers wishes.  My nephew inherited the bike upon my fathers death.

[Vitesse2]

Tom Delaney was mentioned in another thread. His younger brother Luke Sylvestre Delaney, known as 'Duke' Delaney, had also raced at Brooklands. He was a Flying Officer in the RAF when he and the two other crew members of a 211 Squadron Bristol Blenheim were killed when it was shot down near Yannina in north-western Greece on January 6th 1941 - the day after Amy Johnson's plane crashed in the Thames Estuary. 'Duke' was just 21 and is commemorated on the Alamein memorial, his last resting place being unknown. Tommy Wisdom reminisced about Delaney in his June 1941 article ‘Very Different from Motor Racing’ in The Autocar, recounting that they had spent their last leave together in Jerusalem and recalling their shared experiences at Brooklands as competitors and spectators.

[ReWind]

This piece says he crash-landed in Albania, near a village called Topova.

[Vitesse2]

This piece says he crash-landed in Albania, near a village called Topova.

Thanks for that, Reinhard. Published since I researched it early last year! I see he references Wisdom's book as a major source, which I think incorporated the Autocar article I mentioned, although I haven't actually read it. In aviation terms I'd say Topova is quite near Yannina - it's only 100km or so.

[dmj]

Another driver killed in war is Dragutin Esser. According to correspondence with Mr. Pierre Haas, historian of marque Mathis, he was killed as a French soldier in 1914. near Ypres.

According to https://forums.autos...6#entry10695059 we know the date, too.

I have a scan of his death certificate, if anyone is interested.

It's also worth mentioning that now there's much updated article about Esser on French Wikipedia. See https://fr.wikipedia.../Dragutin_Esser

I believe this article confuses him with his father Henri Esser, who was technical engineer in Mathis.

From what I found so far, I believe father was the engineer, son just driver.

Another article on Esser: https://www.gazoline...dans-la-course/

Edited by dmj, 27 January 2025 - 14:01.

[dmj]

And another one, a Croatian racing driver, very active during 1930s, Edo Funk.

Some details, including his record drive from Zagreb to Berlin in his Austro-Daimler, can be found here: https://www.autoslav...g-malog-adlera/

A non-racing biography with details of his death in Holocaust: https://zbl.lzmk.hr/?p=3539