Schindler's history list

My article on the trial of Lord De Clifford featured a photograph of his Lordship’s M45 Lagonda. A reader has now filled me in on its history.

He bought it unseen from England in 1956, and drove it 450 miles home. It went quite well, but now had front cycle-guards and had been crudely painted green. The new owner, Mr Robert Schindler, found that it was the car tested by The Autocar and The Motor in 1933, and was used by the police in London during WWII.

In 1962, Mr Schindler sold the car. Once restored, it was the subject of an article in Automobile Quarterly, which Beverly Rae Kimes used to edit. I had a letter from her in New York last September telling me she is still busily writing articles and books.

She is an extremely competent and well-informed lady, an expert on vintage cars in particular. Brooklands had long been closed when I took her there, and afterwards found an old-style tea shop as she wanted to sample a traditional English afternoon tea. She tells me she remembers this visit well.