Obituary: Jack Bartlett

It was with sorrow and deep regret that we heard of the death, at the age of 79, in the hotel he was staying in while on holiday in Jersey, of Jack Bartlett.

Jack will always be remembered as the dealer in high-class used sports and racing cars, from his premises in 27a Pembridge Villas, Notting Hill. If you wanted a reliable car of this kind before the war, clean beneath the bonnet as well as outwardly, that is where you should have gone. Jack did not trade in “duds” and rightly he made a lot of money from his dealings.

He took up motor racing around 1930 being well known at Brooklands first with Bugattis and a Salmson, and then with faster cars, up to an Alta and a Tipo-B Alfa Romeo, as told in Motor Sport for September 1977. In 1932, Ron Horton and he won the BRDC 500 Mile Race in Horton’s MG Midget. He raced at other venues, such as Southport, with success, and after the war remained a great connoisseur of good, fast cars, notably Porsches.

He went to live in Cannes and drove there from London in a great variety of rapid motor cars, down the years. Indeed, it is such a pity that Jack was unable to get anyone to collaborate with him in the book he had hoped to write, about those and other journeys, his motor trade world, his racing, and the many motoring celebrities he knew so well. In recent times his health was not good, but he seemed to have made a return to normal, without the aid of surgery, relying on dieting and massage. He enjoyed good food, would turn up unexpectedly in London or some other city, make off-the-cuff appointments to dine with an old friend, then return quickly to the sun and a more peaceful environment. A tall, thin man who was quiet, calm, and knew where he was going.

He will be missed very much by those who were fortunate enough to share his friendship. — W.B.