Head's role

Reading Bill Boddy’s article on the Birkin Bentley (September) brought back some childhood memories. The headmaster of my junior school, Blakesley House in Worcester Park, was a keen motorist and owned a Silver Ghost Rolls and a 3-litre Bentley. We knew him as Mr Dudley but I believe his Christian name was Eric. One day a friend of his turned up in a special Bentley and the car-mad, of which I was one, gathered round to have a look. It was explained that this Bentley had set the second-fastest lap around Brooklands, and was quite famous.

That moment, around 1957, made a real impression on me and I carried that memory in the back of my mind until I came across an article about the car in the late 1960s in, of all places, a magazine called Mayfair! There were some nice photographs of the car and, in two of the pictures, I was amazed to see my old headmaster. I would be very interested to know if anyone has any information on this Bentley during the late 1950s and ’60s, and what, if any, connection Eric Dudley had with the car. Richard Bradbury, Sutton, Surrey