Rolls-Royce 20HP

An upright limousine, with a large area of glass, making the interior light and spacious. Appealing features include vertically & horizontally divided windscreen, lovely curved glass at each end of the division, correct, low-mounted headlamps and side-mounted spare wheel with facility for rear-mounting as an option. The car is in good, sound and clean condition, very nicely re-upholstered in recent times in excellent, very appropriate black leather to the front and beige corded cloth to the rear, with fresh headlining as well. Offered prepared & serviced, and following a long spell in Ireland, the rather attractive original registration number, YE1001, has been reinstated


Chassis No. GYK34 Reg. No. YE1001

Snippets: The Railway Man
The 1st owner of GYK34 was W E Palmer an antique dealer in South Kensington, London, his showroom was ideally situated on the intersection of Gloucester Road with Queen’s Gate Terrace & Victoria Grove. The road was named after Maria, the Duchess of Gloucester, wife of Prince William Henry and also a grand-daughter of Robert Walpole (1st Prime Minister). Prior to being named after the Duchess the road was known as Hogg Moore Lane ('lane through marshy ground where hogs are kept). W E Palmer advertised his premises in “The Connoisseur”, a publication for the discerning collector which ran from 1901 to 1992 when it was merged into “Town & Country” by the Hearst Corporation. By 1931 GYK34 had moved on and was with her 2nd owner Lt Col John Henry Follows (1869/1938), a railway man by birth (his father served 40 years with the Midland Railway) John Follows started work with the Midland Railway in 1890 age just 20 & by 1901 he had been promoted to Traffic Inspector; in 1907 he became part of Sir Cecil Paget’s staff (Paget was the General Superintendant) & whilst Sir Cecil was in France sorting out their military railways, John Follows took on his role in the Midland Railway & when Sir Cecil’s retired John Follows succeeded him as Vice-President of Midland Railway. Sadly John Follows died in 1938 having owned GYK34 for just 7 years. It is not known who owned GYK34 immediately after John Follows death but a later owner was Tony Dunning (VCC member) who used the Rolls-Royce to act as a tender for his 1903 De Dion Bouton which had a habit of breaking down – twice in the 1970 Brighton run!!