Bentley 4.25-Litre (1938)

SALE AGREED

Displayed on the HJ Mulliner stand at the 1938 London Motor it must have caused quite a sensation with its clear Plexiglass roof panel and slender screen pillars! Now well finished in two-tone grey which shows off the elegant lines to advantage and is complimented by the excellent grey leather interior. Mechanically and structurally strong this late ‘Overdrive’ car is a delight on the road with a light cabin and wonderful view. All major tools are in situ under the bonnet and there’s a comprehensive set of small tools in the boot lid tray and passenger footwell compartment. There is also a full ownership record and two box files of history which include an impressive collection of invoices! MoT tested until December 2018.


Chassis No. B28MR Reg. No. FGT 867 £95,000.

Snippets: Birmingham Tubes & Sewers, South African Companies
The 1st owner of B28MR from 1938 to 1955 was Douglas William Turner MD & Chairman of Wellington Tube Works – at the 1937 British Industries Fair they were described as “makers of wrought iron tubes & fittings for gas, water, steam etc and for special pipework of every description.” The company was started by Joseph Aird in the mid 1800s and by 1926 Douglas Turner became the company Managing Director, the Turner family had connections with Midland Bank, Averys Ltd and Gibbons, Douglas’s son Roger joined his father in the business and in due course Roger Turner became MD (1959). The 2nd owner was Sir H. J. B. Manzoni (1899/1972), he started his career as an engineer in the Sewers & River department in Birmingham and by the age of 36 he became City Surveyor for Birmingham and was responsible for the demolition of many Victorian buildings (Birmingham City Library & Bull Ring Market Hall) and erection of tower blocks to house the growing population. It would appear from the chassis cards that Douglas Turner and Herbert Manzoni lived less than a mile from each other – with the use of tubes within the sewerage industry perhaps they had met though their work? In 1965 B28MR was acquired by Dr Christopher Chilcot Evans (1909/98), a specialist in the field of Electroencephalography (EEG) which is the study of electrical activity of the brain. During WWII Dr Evans was with the RNVR as a Surgeon, serving with the Atlantic Convoy and he landed in Normandy soon after D-Day. His home of Rosslyn Hill (a large Georgian House) in Hampstead became a place where musicians stayed and concerts were given right up to his death in 1998. When Dr Evans sold B28MR he retained some of the tool kit and there is some lengthy correspondence regarding the car with Carl Ferdinand Cornelius Witte-Vermeulen (lawyer) who had shipped B28MR to Johannesburg in the mid ‘70s. In 1977 Gavin W H Relly (chairman of Anglo-American) purchased B28MR after his personal assistant Anthony J Trahar had recommended the car to him, in 1992 when Gavin Relly (retired from Ango-American in 1990) sold B28MR it was to Anthony Trahar who in 1992 had become CEO of Anglo-American!! Anthony Trahar kept B28MR and in fact bought the car back to the UK with him when he relocated to the early 2000s.

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