Rolls-Royce Phantom (1931)

SALE AGREED

A strikingly attractive car, with light, very rakish and sporting wing design, 'E' rake steering, P100 ‘bullseye’ headlamps, twin-bar quarter bumpers on the rear, twin side-mounted spare wheels, and six Ace wheel discs. The car has been off the road for a good number of years, but is running very well, following recent engine renovation work. The interior has been partially re-trimmed to a high standard, with new cloth in the rear, and still incorporates the original clock and speedometer mounted on the division in the rear compartment. A great car, enhanced further still by the fitting of overdrive, which makes it ideal for long distance cruising. The engine has recently undergone a thorough refurbishment, and some yers ago was fitted with a new cylinder head. Offered re-commissioned and serviced, following several years of storage.

Chassis No. 5JS Reg No. GP 4690 Price £77,500

Snippets: The Connections between Jones - Sheffield & Cameron

5JS’s 1st owner was Sir Roderick Jones who from 1916 to 1941 was MD of Reuters, during those 25 years he saw two World Wars, Execution of the Romanovs (1918), Jazz sweeping USA, 1st female MP (Lady Astor 1919), Prohibition in the USA (1920), the 1st Mickey Mouse film (1928) , Amelia Earhart’s Atlantic solo flight (1932), Churchill becoming PM (1940), the reign of 3 Kings of England George V, Edward VIII and George VI. Sir Roderick’s wife was the novelist & playwright Enid Bagnold – best known for her novel National Velvet which in 1944 was turned into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney. Sir Roderick was an autocratic gentleman and several stories have emerged of when he left home his butler would ring Reuters who would send a messenger boy to the traffic lights on Carmelite Street so that he could jump on the rubber pad to ensure that the light was green when Sir Roderick approached them – and again when he left for home, he had a reputation of being a control freak and in the rear of 5JS he had a 2nd speedometer as he wanted to control the speed of the drive! Having said that his son, Dominick has been in touch and he remembers that after WWII when he used to drive the Phantom his father would sit in the front and claim ownership of the near-side wing mirror but at home, his mother was In Charge! When Sir Roderick retired from Reuteurs they could not afford to run two households (they used to shuttle between the homes every week!) so they shut the London house & relocated to their country house at Rottingdean where Enid created a small-holding which enabled them get the extra petrol rations, here Dominick can recall teaching his father how to use a hammer to construct the rabbit-hutches! 5JS remained with the family until 1971 (Sir Roderick having died in 1962) when Dominick sold the car for some £2,000! The Jones’s daughter Laurian had Rudyard Kipling as her God-father with her 1st marriage to 4th Baron St. Oswald MC & her 2nd to Count Pierre d’Harcourt a WWII French Resistance hero (autobiography “The Real Enemy”); their eldest son Timothy eloped with Pandora Clifford who was pregnant with their daughter Annabel – Timothy & Pandora divorced in 1960 & in 1961 Pandora remarried to Michael Astor (son of the 2nd Viscount Astor & Nancy Astor). Tim & Pandora’s daughter Annabel married Sir Reginald Sheffield and they had a daughter Samantha, Annabel & Reginald also divorced with Annabel marrying William Astor 4th Viscount (Grandson of 2nd Viscount & cousin of Michael Astor) – Samantha Sheffield is today better known as Mrs Samantha Cameron, wife of the Ex-Prime Minister David Cameron.

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