Peter Walker

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Sir,

It is not very often that I can add to anything written in MOTOR SPORT, but I read the very interesting Peter Walker article and would venture a few observations.

Prior to the 1956 accident, Peter Walker could be described as a man who could “hold his liquor’. The effects of the Le Mans crash certainly changed this, and a very small amount of alcohol would affect his balance and he would appear to be intoxicated. In a very unhappy period of his life after Le Mans in 1956 he seemed unable to settle down. He later worked for a short time for a friend in a garage in Worcestershire, and after a further period in the shadows lived in Worcester for the final years of his life. Shortly before his death he remarried, and seemingly had recovered a great deal from his problems of the Sixties and Seventies. He was not drinking at all and had found happiness in the Autumn of his life.

Many of his friends in motorsport tried to help Peter, one of whom was a frequent visitor during the latter part of his life. I knew him very slightly and only during the saddest time in his life. One last point, however Peter Walker did test and race again after Le Mans 1956. In the early Spring of 1957, he tested the Rob Walker Connaught at Goodwood, and subsequently drove the car at Syracuse.

Neville Hay, Salwarpe, Worcs.