10426 Penelope_Margery_Stephen_Timothy_Nicholas Smalley. Simon writes “My dad was a tail-gunner/wireless ops in the RAF during WW2. I am the youngest of his six children and was born in 1962. The eldest was born in 1946.
After leaving the RAF at the end of the war, my dad was a professional industrial photographer for Ericsson Telecommunications here in Nottingham. Fortunately, wherever we travelled in the Alvis, his pair of trusty Rolex cameras accompanied us, resulting in a comprehensive archive of our formative years. I attach a few photos of him with his Firefly, and also of my five older siblings (taken before my birth) inside, and one showing my mother with a very young me in the back seat; my foldable push-chair firmly attached to the rear of the car. The public house in the photograph of my mother with JU 2128 is The Oak Tree at Hoveringham, Notts.
Dad sold the Alvis circa 1968 and then owned a Rover 90, followed by a Rover 100, and then a Morris Minor until his death in 1991.
The reasons for him selling the Alvis are nebulous. Family legend states that he was unable to source tyres despite writing to suppliers in America, although I’m unsure whether this is merely romantic fabrication.
I am an author and my first volume of memoir was recently published. I took great delight in recounting how – aided by his wonderful Alvis Firefly – at weekends my father was determined to liberate us from the tough, working class area of Nottingham we lived, preferring to roam the byways of the adjoining counties of Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Leicestershire.
Alas, only three of us six siblings remain and we would love to learn the history of JU 2128 after it left Nottingham.
Alvis Archive 