Bentley 4.25-Litre

A major show winner in both 2001 and 2005 the car is still sharp & presents very well with excellent door fit and high quality paint work set off by faultless chrome. The light Tan leather interior & finely veneered wood matches the quality of the exterior and is enhanced by a smoothly operating sunroof. It is almost as smart under the bonnet as above with all major tools in their correct locations. We are pleased to be able to say that it also drives extremely well with sprightly performance, positive steering and good poise on the road. There is a comprehensive history file which includes invoices totalling over $155,000 between 1988 and 1995! Also copies of some fascinating early sales invoices from Jack Barclay. A car that can be shown & used with equal enthusiasm.

SALE AGREED

Chassis No. B168LS Reg. No. EXW 484 £95,000.

Snippets: Surgeons & Thoroughbreds
Alfred Henry Richardson only owned B168LS for 4 years due to his sudden death in 1942 aged just 58. Alfred Richardson graduated from Cambridge as a doctor in 1907 and prior to WWI he served as a house surgeon at St Thomas’s and then as an assistant to Berkeley Moynihan (noted British abdominal surgeon) in Leeds. During WWI Alfred Richardson was stationed in France with the RAMC in the role as surgical specialist and upon his return from the front he returned to St. Thomas Hospital where he specialised in obstetrics – he resigned from St. Thomas’s in order to attend to his private practice in Harley Street, his patients included Lavinia Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk who he attended upon the birth of her 1st child, the Lady Anne. In 1939 with start of WWII Alfred Richardson rejoined St. Thomas’s in order to assist with the war wounded, he died in 1942 leaving a widow Olive Blanche Richardson. During the 1940s passed through the hands of Stanley Victor Hawkins of The Chester Engineering Co (1918) Ltd and then with Bernard van Cutsem; he bred & trained thoroughbreds in Exning and his stable produced many winners including High top, Park Top & Petros, owners included Lord Derby, Duke of Devonshire, Lord Lymley, Lady Tennant & of course, himself! Family links by marriage & blood are numerous & varied & include the Grosvenors, the Astors, the Spencers, the Arran and the Albermarle-Fellowes. By the 1970s B168LS had been acquired by an Orthopaedic Surgeon, this time in the USA – Lee Pennell Haacker who in January 1969 wrote an article entitled “Time and Its Effects on Casualties in World War II and Vietnam”, in the 1950s Lee’s brother William had served with the US Air Force in the Korean War as a navigator/radar bombardier in a B-29, he later went on to become an accountant. Lee Haacker shared the ownership of B168LS with Tom Donoho of Owing Mills & after Tom’s death in 1987 Lee owned B168LS under sole ownership until the mid 1990s.