Mike Mutters
1926 Barker Barrel Sided Tourer 20hp GOK2
GOK 2 was ordered from Rolls Royce by the Borneo Trading Company of Singapore in November 1925. A polished aluminium bonnet with louvres and a Barker Barrel Sided Tourer body was requested and after the final road test at Barkers, was shipped to Singapore in April 1926. According to Rolls Royce records, Allan Loake of the Straights Settlements in Kuala Lumpur became the contact in January 1927 whilst H.L. Barnett of the Department of Agriculture in Kuala Lumpur requested various spares from Rolls Royce during the 1930’s. It is possible that Department of Agriculture originally ordered the vehicle from the Borneo Trading Company in the first place.
A note in the Rolls Royce records in 29/10/1945 state that the vehicle was found ‘Abandoned in damaged condition in Singapore’.
In April 1954, one C.J.C. Habakost wrote to Rolls Royce requesting a replacement set of ignition keys. His letter states that he was enclosing a photograph “of this fine old model which is one of the pre-war cars in Malaya to survive the ill-treatment of the Japanese Occupation”.
There is correspondence between Mr. Habakost and Rolls Royce referencing various spares, a request regarding carburettor adjustments and other miscellaneous parts. There are also a number of receipts from local Singapore garages for servicing and other work completed during the 1950’s.
It seems that Mr. Habakost died suddenly in March 1960 and a Mr. J. W. Cashin acquired the car in 1961. The Cashins were a wealthy family of land and business speculators who settled in Singapore having arrived from Ireland in the early 1800’s.
There is a considerable file relating to invoices, correspondence, photos and a local log-book showing that the car was in regular use in Singapore in the 1970’s and 80’s.
Mr Cashin moved back to the UK in 1990 when he retired and settled in a property near Dorking, Surrey. The car returned with him and was UK registered DS 8882 in 1991 and seems to have been exercised regularly until Mr. Cashin’s death in the mid 2000’s. After a few years of storage, the car was put up for auction by the family so I was able to purchase the car at the Bonhams Oxford Sale, June 2014.
The vehicle still wears its original Barker tourer body but has benefitted from a considerable amount of mechanical, body and trim work over the past few years and has the useful addition of an overdrive.
