Founded in the year nineteen twenty-four February 1980

Huntingdon, on the way to Newmarket, after driving to
Barnsley before breakfast and on via Grantham. X won
about 18/- in a lottery. Resuming his journey after tea,
he reached Newmarket in time to dine there and then
pushed off for London in the faithful Adler, stopping
for the night at Baldock. Leaving at 6.30 a.m., X arrived
in London about midday, cleaned up, lunched with his
mother and friends, and then set off back to Newmarket
with a lady passenger at 4.30 p.m., dining at the “Rutland
Arms” en route. Maybe not surprisingly, practically the
whole of the Monday was occupied with tuning-up
the Adler. But in the evening one of the girls “drove
me into Newmarket in the little new Calthorpe. Had a
very cheery evening and all the ladies dressed up for the
dance and were excellent”.
Soon afterwards, X was posted to the CFS at
Upavon, as a Wing-Adjutant.
(To be continued.)
V-E-V Odds & Ends:— Plans are going ahead for
the 75th Anniversary of Shelsley Walsh hill-climb this
year. At the combined MAC/VSCC Meeting there, it is
hoped to have a number of appropriate pre-1914 cars
present, and to celebrate the Alvis Register’s Diamond
Jubilee there is to be a special Alvis section of the car
park. On the Humber front, we learn from the Humber
Register’s newsletter that one of the very rare circa 1919
3.5 h.p. Humber flat-twin motorcycles is being restored
in Warwickshire, that a 9/20 Humber two-seater has
turned up in rough condition in Scotland, and that a
1927 Brainsby-bodied Humber saloon is in process of
restoration. The Fiat Register won the 1979 Inter-Register
Contest. We hear that Phil Diffey has acquired an
Albatross, presumably not the one in a Denbigh garage.
In New Zealand a 1924 14 h.p. Standard “Warwick”
tourer is in use again, after a nine-year rebuild.
The Eastern Daily Press (cutting sent to us by
a reader) had a touching story last year about what is
thought to have been the first car in Foulsham, Norfolk,
believed to have been a Decauville owned by a Dr. Wolf,
the year being quoted as 1909 — the car was Registered
CL 551. It seems that the motoring doctor went off for
a spin but collided with another car withing minutes of
setting off, the driver of which had up to then always had
the roads in that area entirely to himself... The photograph
of the car was on one of several glass-plates found in a
garage which still exists in the main street of Foulsham.
The 1980 International Bugatti Rally will be organised by
the Bugatti Club Nederland, the provisional dates being
June lst-5th. It happens to the best of us! The picture
with an article about “Cars With a Fine Pedigree” which
appeared in the Liverpool Daily Post last December was
captioned as depicting an early Series-1 Morris Eight, but
showed a GP Bugatti! The AGM of the VSCC takes place
in London on March 5th. Early American vintage tourers
that took part in the VCC of New Zealand’s Oil Can Rally
included an Ajax and and Essex. — W.B.
Star Postscript
[Last month we published Star Story, after the Editor had
met Mr. Wallace Marsh, who was a Premium Pupil at the
Wolverhampton Company before the First World War.
Here is his postscript.]
OLD TEDDY, the founder of Star and related cars —
I call him that because that was the name by which
all his workmen knew him — was married twice and
altogether had 13 offspring. Apart from Dolly and
Ethel, the two youngest daughters, I only knew the
sons. In order of precedence these were: Edward who
was managing director of Briton cars, Joe who was
general manager of Star cars, Jack who went in for
tailoring, Richard (Dick) who raced Stars and was sales
representative for northern England and Scotland,
Alec who was with Star until he become blind about
1910, Percy whom the old man tried to make into a
farmer and finally Charles who went into the garage
business.
Dolly and Ethel eventually married two nephews
of Arnold Bennett and caused much confusion as
they were both Mrs. Bennett. On the whole they
were a tragic family. Old Teddy threw himself into
the canal at Tettenhall and drowned. This was about
1921. Joe had been trying to edge the old man out of
the business for some years and when he succeeded
Teddy just packed up. Joe in turn was edged out of his
job as Managing Director of Star by Guys and he blew
his brains out with a shotgun. Retribution perhaps.
Dick’s wife Lottie took an overdose of sleeping tablets
and died leaving a note for Dick. Alec accidentally set
himself on fire with a petrol hose and was burnt to
death. Percy I believe broke his neck in a fall. Charlie’s
main claim to fame appears to be that a number of his
“wives”, all unknown to each other, turned up at his
funeral. (Great consternation, and big joke, in the Lisle
family.) (Here I would add that I mistakenly said that
Mrs. Lacey, who came on our Star pilgrimage, was
married to a Lisle; in fact, she was the daughter of Alec
Lisle. — Ed.)
In my time with Star there were four Premium
Pupils, Harrison whose father was a brass-founder in
Dudley, Ezra who was something in the rubber recovery
business, Capel-Smith from a Naval family, and myself.
The Works Manager’s name was Godfrey. (I was in the
rubber-growing business for about 30 years but it was not
until I came to write these notes that I realised they must
have been using ground-up scrap rubber in a rubber-tyre
mix before the 1914 War.) Godfrey was followed by a
chap called Jenkins. Willie Graham, a peppery Scot, was
Manager of the body-building shop.
Managers and Foremen invariably wore bowler
hats at work, and quite a few of the workmen outside
working hours.
There was an apparatus for generating Mond gas
in the factory yard which gave off a very unpleasant
smell. This gas was used in the case-hardening
furnaces. Items to be hardened were placed in suitable
metal boxes on a layer of carburising material —
usually charred leather crumbs — followed by another
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