Harcourt-Wood was one of the lesser lights in that speed mad bunch of pre-war toffs known as the Bentley Boys.Wood's best individual result was a fourth place driving a works Bentley in the 1929 Eireann Cup race in Phoenix Park. That year he also finised sixth in the 1929 Brooklands 12 Hour race, co-driving Brian Lewis's Riley. In 1930 Wood was all set to compete in the Le Mans 24hrs with Jack Dunfee in Dorothy Paget's Blower Bentley. Unfortunately the fuel over-heated and the car was unable to start.
So where did Harcourt-Wood pick up that unusual given name? Well, his father Captain Charles Harcourt-Wood owned the Caerberis estate in Builth Wells and the Bentley Boy must have been fond of the area as, although Caerberis had been sold long before, Harcourt-Wood returned to the district, where he died in 1968. Co-incidently the family of a much more successful racer, Tim Rose-Richards lived at Caerberis for a while after the First World War.
Hi. Thought you might like this snippet on Innes ... see this, if you can cut and paste into your browser ...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=USA&screen=lotdetails&iSaleItemNo=2572484&iSaleNo=13184&sServer=http://images2.bonhams.com/&sPath=2005-07/22/7114674-1-2.jpg
thanks for the tip
ReplyDeleteThe townspeople turned out in force to welcome the Harcourt- Woods to Caeberis. Streets were bedecked in bunting and crowds lined the route from the railway station.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit like that when I go to Builth ..... only they've closed the railway station.
ReplyDelete