The "Motor Sport" Brooklands Fund

A Further Announcement

Last April we announced the opening of a Fund for the purpose of commemorating the great work of the late Mr. H. F. Locke-King, who built Brooklands Track — the famous testing and sporting centre which served the motoring fraternity so nobly for nearly forty years — on his Weybridge Estate during 1906/7. The Fund hung fire for a while, until a meeting could be called at which its function could be properly discussed and trustees appointed. That meeting took place at the Motor Sport offices on July 22nd last; it was attended by Mr. D. J. Scammell, Secretary of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, Mr. H. J. Morgan, Secretary of the Junior Car Club, Mr. J. A. Masters, Secretary of the Motor Cycling Club, Mr. S. Sedgwick, Secretary of the Bentley Drivers’ Club, Mr. W. J. Tee, Proprietor of Motor Sport, and Mr. W. Boddy, Editor of Motor Sport.

This Committee agreed that this Fund to commemorate Locke-King’s unselfish work is deserving of the support of every enthusiast, and that some recognition of Brooklands is long overdue. Mr. Scammell was able to report that the B.R.D.C. Committee is fully sympathetic to this cause and that Earl Howe, the Club’s President, has graciously consented to support it. Boddy remarked that Dame Ethyl Locke-King once told him that far more criticisms than praise seemed to be showered on the old Track while it existed. He felt that only now are we beginning to realise all that Brooklands meant to us and he sincerely hoped that everyone who had used the Track and spent happy hours there would send a small donation to the Brooklands Locke-King Fund.

The Committee decided that the manner in which Mr. Locke-King’s memory could best be perpetuated would depend on how generously the Fund is subscribed to, but it is suggested that at the very least some form of annual Challenge Trophy, known as the Locke-King Brooklands Trophy, might be instituted and donors to the Fund are invited to enlarge on this suggestion. If a really large sum is subscribed something more public-spirited may be possible; we would then hope to have Dame Ethyl Locke-King’s views on this. Before the meeting terminated, Mr. Masters and Mr. Tee were appointed trustees of the Fund.

We give below a full list of donations as they stand at present, and in doing so we cannot but call attention to the comparatively small response so far. We would ask those of you who miss our first and only motor course to send a donation to this fund, however small. Locke-King’s task was a truly momentous one and was undertaken, despite many early set-backs, with determination and entirely at his own expense. We ask you to forget the bickers that ultimately befell Brooklands and play your part, however modest, in perpetuating the memory of a man who did untold good to the British Motor Industry and to his country, but in his lifetime received practically no thanks from the motoring fraternity and none at all from successive Governments. The Fund stands at present as follows: