Rolls Royces fit for Princes

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Two glamorous and highly desirable pre-War Rolls-Royces with Royal connections will be offered by H&H Classics at its forthcoming sale on saturday 20 June  at Burghley House, the home of the Marquess and Marchioness of Exeter. 1923 Silver Ghost Shooting Brake has a unique body built by Barker and finished to the design of H.R.H the Prince of Wales for use on his Scottish estate and it was he who requested the aluminium coachwork be painted to give the appearance of walnut. The car gave sterling service at Royal shooting parties transporting all the guests, dogs, guns, cartridges, hampers and muddy boots around the estate but the black silk blinds in the rear compartment give credence to the rumour they were fitted to give privacy to its occupants when the Prince (now King Edward VIII) was courting Miss Simpson and needed to smuggle her in and out of Balmoral.

Let us travel from Scottish moors to the Indian jungle and look at the  1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Sedanca De Ville. Records suggest that an Indian prince, Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji – Maharaja Jam Sahib, who played cricket for England – first commissioned the car with tiger shooting in mind but died before receiving it. Mrs Amy Davies, of the Tate & Lyle sugar empire, bought it for her daughter, Elsie Partington, to lift her spirits after her recent divorce. Elsie was based in Cheshire and the distinctive Phantom became well-known in the area - it is said policemen on point duty in Manchester's Oxford Street regularly stopped the other traffic and saluted as they waved the Rolls through. The unusual wrap-around rear windows are often found on Maharaja's cars used for hunting Tigers.

The post-WW1 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost still justifiably carried the title of 'Best Car in the World' and one of the many famous roles it has undertaken is as an armoured car in the desert for 'Lawrence of Arabia'. The man who supplied the cars for the film of that name used the rear wings from one of them when he re-bodied this 1924 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Shooting Brake and we urge you to take the time to read the fascinating description where you will learn that one owner, a skilled wood worker, made the enormous drums used in the film 'Zulu'.

(Text Robin Batchelor, pictures courtesy H&H)

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