New old photos have occupied our time recently with questions to answer. A note from Tim Hart asks for details of his father’s Crested Eagle. “1937 Alvis Crested Eagle Chassis No 13756, Engine No 14115, Reg No MG5065. My father, Alan Hart (a passionate motoring “man”) passed away last year, aged 96 and whilst we have located a level of documentation evidencing his close involvement with and ownership of the car, we know very little about the car’s history etc. and/or its current whereabouts and, following in my Fathers footsteps I am interested to find out as much as I can as I am trying to piece together my fathers involvement in motor sport and motoring generally over many decades.“
The car is on the DVLA database – where is it now?
One car we know does exist is this 1930 12-50 Cross & Ellis tourer SC 8910
Bruce Gorie asks “Given the registration number is an Edinburgh one, this picture was probably taken in Scotland before the Second World War. The name of the gentleman on the left is not known. Equally, the dog’s name is unknown! The man on the right is my uncle, George A Swanson, First Officer of the SS Tinhow, who was lost in April 1941 when his ship was torpedoed off Mozambique. Any help you can offer would be appreciated.
The last post about Diana Russell generated some interest from another charity www.maggies.org wanting some pictures of Diana and her racing career. They are currently creating a video on the legacy of Diana Russell. Jim Gregory was able to help and came up with more photos which are shown below. We are not sure of the dates or places and some of the people but if you know do please leave a comment.
This one shows Diana with Rowland Simmons probably at Alvis in Coventry when he was Service Director and getting his hands dirtyProbably at Vintage Racing Cars in Northampton with two known TE21s and two unknown peopleWho is Diana talking to?Is that F C Brown at Alvis? Caption Competition please!Who is driving 38, what is it, where and when?Who is driving what, where and when?This 1934 Firefly AYY 754 was once owned by T D Basher (really!) who lived in Northampton. Bulletins 425, 426 and 455 chronicle its history and last heard of in Italy with a man called Alvise.Who, what, when and where?
If you can add any information to these photos, please leave a comment
Thanks to a donation from Martin Wickham we are expanding our pages on Fighting Vehicles to include some of the hundreds of photos and documents which he has catalogued. This photo taken in the month the last Alvis car was delivered shows how the Company treated its potential customers for the Stalwart.
Thanks to the generosity of some Register members we have a complete set of pristine Bulletins and Circulars from 1948 and various documents, such as….
We always enjoy welcoming visitors to Bowcliffe to view the archives and dine in the Drivers Club. This month “Crossing Borders Tour of Yorkshire” called in en route to North Sea Ferries on their return leg. Arriving before the heavens opened four Alvis were among the visitors, including a TD21 driven by the AOC’s International Director Jan-Peter Eichhorn.
27303 TE 21 and 26243 TD21 at Bowcliffe Hall
Also present were old friends organiser Manfred Fleischmann and the Graber 1955 Show car formerly TDU 810.
25859 TC21/100 Graber TDU 810
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We were saddened to learn that John Burnell, a Life Member of the Trust, former Registrar of the Alvis Register and AOC member has died.
We first met on the 1970 Tour of Britain which he co-organised. He was the owner of more than a dozen Alvis from the 1920s to 1960s and responsible for producing regular Membership Lists for the Register with comprehensive data on surviving cars.
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Another serial owner and former Chairman of the AOC in the 1960s was Laurie Halliwell. His son Miles has forwarded some photos of the cars he owned including a TD21 we had not previously recorded. It is not known to survive, unless someone knows better?
26177 TD21 originally registered EC 222 – does it survive?
He also owned this Speed 20SD Cross & Ellis tourer chassis 13056, last heard of with an AOC member. The photo was taken in 1962.
CTU 892 when owned by Laurie Halliwell
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The Le Mans post prompted Jim Gregory to write about the late Diana Russell (1922-2020) who owned more than a dozen Alvis including his Speed 25 in the 1960s, two front wheel drives and the last TF21 demonstrator.
Jim’s Speed 25, formerly owned by Diana Russell
“She owned the Rooper front wheel drive YX 6424 which she donated to Brooklands Museum. Diana told me that the driver shown in the car is Lt. Cdr Clinkard; he apparently enthused about the FWD enough to build his own special in the early ‘50s. Diana gave me permission to use the images when I took the Speed 25 to remind her of younger days; she loved it.
I think the other two pictures are of a FWD racing; perhaps you know the car?
Diana hosted me, Dan Geoghegan and Stuart Nell. She gave me a rundown of the holes she drilled on the Speed 25, some rare items to go with the car (e.g. the barometer, bonnet oiler, grease gun and the original Alvis showroom brochure). She also showed us old pics of her with W O Bentley, Barbara Cartland the Urquhart Dykes, Rivers Fletcher etc. including many documents and brown log books and finally gave us some fruit from her orchards. The Alvis ones I have distributed FOC to various club members. Diana was an interesting woman who seemed to know everybody in the racing game.
from Classic and Sportscar
George Butlin knew her when he was a young chap and told me she was a kind but fiery girl in those days. I last saw her around 2010 and she was just the same. She had all of her ‘marbles’, instant recall and still a formidable woman.
She had the very last demo TF21 from the factory JRW446E along with an Alvis letter confirming such. Alvis used the car for the factory publicity hence the picture with the two female models they used at the time.“
“With her permission, I put her in touch with Brian Neale, the then owner of JRW in touch. Brian sent me a very nice thank-you letter stating that Diana was delighted to see the car again and had given him lots of ‘goodies’ to go with it. So that car should have lots of ‘paper candy’ with it.”
After Diana Russell JRW 446E went to Paul Holdsworth. Rod Jolley rebuilt the coachwork in aluminium and also wrote Paul’s obituary in Bulletin 544 in 2013. Rod Yeend also owned the car and on his death Brian Neale acquired the car, winning many trophies including the Graber clock.
Nick Simpson wrote: “How nice to see a tribute to Diana Russell; I knew her when I was in Northampton around 1970. Vintage Racing Cars was a regular visit where sometimes we had a chat whilst examining a smart pre-war Alvis in the showroom; her Peony TF21 was usually parked in the side-street with a trailer behind. I traded a few Alvises with Diana; I recall a 12/70 SC 15887, (FOL208), a Three Litre 25951, (XDA500) and I purchased an Alvis Twenty-five limousine (TA25.63, 13747, CRO689). She was a huge Alvis enthusiast and always a pleasure to make deal with.
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Back to 2023 and more TD21 photos are flowing in including this from Charles van Ingen of two 1959 dropheads taken at IAW 2023 in Crieff
1959 TD21 dropheads bodies 18528 and 18530
XLE 45 is a well documented car now with Stephen Leckie. Why it looks like a Series II……..
The full story is in AOC Bulletin 387, October 1990, Page 32Grand Touring in Scotland – Charles van Ingen
Once again two front wheel drive Alvis have raced at Le Mans in 2023 and caught on camera by Edmund Waterhouse.
Mark Hayward/Mark Butterworth in number 27 – Fred Herzog/Raphael Koch in WK 8045In the car park, Cross & Ellis Speed 25 tourer chassis 14584Vanden Plas Speed 20 SA chassis 9802
17th June 2023 is a highly significant date in the Alvis story, and an occasion to be celebrated, marking as it does exactly one hundred years since the first public appearance of the incomparable 12-50, the model which did so much to establish the marque’s enduring reputation, and a car still recognised today as one of the very best and most practical products of the vintage years. Its debut took place at the Rally at Brooklands organised by Henlys, the London agents. In the words of the Coventry Evening Telegraph, ‘After the racing events, Major Harvey gave an exhibition performance on the track of the Alvis Company’s latest product, a super-sports model, fitted with an overhead-valve engine of their latest design, which created a very considerable amount of interest.’
The first OHV cars were fitted with very sporting 2-seater coachwork with a small additional seat in the pointed tail, a style popularly known for obvious reasons as the ‘duck’s-back’. As can be seen from this example, the earliest advertising emphasised the sporting aspects of the car. From later in 1923, the new overhead valve engine was also offered as an alternative across the range of body styles on the then current staple 12-40 chassis, plus a particularly handsome light 4-str sports tourer as seen in the catalogue illustration below, and the 12-50 rapidly gained a reputation as one of the very best sporting light cars of its day. Discerning motorists were quick to recognise the appeal of the model’s outstanding qualities, most notably performance in relation to its engine size, reliability, relative ease of maintenance and build quality. This ensured that many examples continued to be used and enjoyed by successive owners over the years, enhancing its reputation and ensuring that today the 12-50 still retains an enthusiastic following.
Thanks to Register Historian Greg Wrapson for the article and period images.
Greg with three hares and a Silver Eagle at Bowcliffe Hall
We are also pleased to welcome Greg as a trustee of the Archive Trust following our AGM in April.
Another new trustee is Brian Hartley, a former Stalwart owner, Brian writes “I had half share (actually sole ownership when repairs were needed) of a Stalwart with Neil and could write a small book about our adventures with it. Ranging from having to use a JCB to remove my portly brother from the cab after he had a stroke, to my near death experience when we (I) took to the water for the first time, with Neil safely on the lake bank! “
The late Neil Millington at the wheel of the Alvis, afloat, “despite his firm grip of the wheel it was actually the tillers, in front of me, that did the steering in water.”
Our page on Fighting Vehicles is not as comprehensive as it could be so we were pleased to receive a note from Mark Ellis alerting us to his new website for the Stalwart, see Fighting Vehicles
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I discovered an hour long documentary film on YouTube here about the short lived marque I bought after my first TD21 in 1972. It includes a talking head with former Alvis racer Brian Chant. I wonder if Alvis considered taking up the Giugiaro design and producing it?
But of course someone did get part of the idea, Jim Burns, but too late.
The Burns Special V8Gordon Keeble at Bonhams Paris 2023
This annual event attracted several Alvis this year and Graber owners old and new were able to meet up and enjoy the show at the Messe.
The Verkehrshaus, the Lucerne Transport Museum, also houses two Graber Alvis and one is on show.
Chassis 25792 – TC21/100 – From this angle the slight curve of the sill trim strip can be seen
At the Classic Car Show……..
The first 1958 TD21 Graber coupe was a Geneva Show car, now with a new owner in Switzerland1959 TD21, chassis 26080 was in the auction, not soldOn show in the exhibition, BPO 6 chassis 12710Yes, it’s a Bentley Graber
Christoph Grohe also has a 1960 TD21 Graber coupe with right hand drive on offer from long term family ownership.
On Coronation day a selection of royal cars are on display at Pall Mall including King Charles’ father’s Alvis TD21. The display runs until 15th May. For more on OXR 1 click OXR 1
Alvis Archive 