Roger Tanner of Kenya
1926 Hooper Faux Cabriolet GUK20
The order for this chassis was placed by Rootes Ltd of New Bond Street on 10 May 1926, who then sold the car to Mr Ralph Hawkes of Boosey and Hawkes (the well-known music publishers). The chassis was invoiced by Rolls-Royce on 8 June 1926 at £1045, discounted from £1100, marked “Providing Own Body” and fitted with four-wheel brakes. Interestingly, the chassis was ordered with matt finish white radiator shutters and black Lucas lamps. The chassis was delivered to Hoopers on 14 June for the erection of the cabriolet body and was finally inspected by EP of Rolls-Royce on 14 September 1926, indicating a three month build time, with the guarantee effective from 23 September 1926.
Boosey and Hawkes built an empire together. Leslie Boosey was the heir to the existing music business of 200 years standing, which at the time owned half of Regent Street. Ralph Hawkes, inheritor of the sheet music and instrument business was the dashing hero of the Cresta Run, yachtsman, ocean racer and active entrepreneur. He threw lavish parties from his penthouse apartment in Knightsbridge, whilst Boosey sold apples to his staff from his own orchard. By the Second World War, Boosey and Hawkes had already signed up Bartok, Kodaly, Copland and also Benjamin Britten who shared the passion for cars and competitive sports. Sales boomed during the war and B and H, after signing Rachmaninov, Stravinsky and Prokofiev actually bought the lease of The Royal Opera House, saving it from becoming a Dance Hall.
The second owner, recorded in 1937 was His Highness Charles Mahe de Chenal de Bourdonnais. Mahe is the main island of the Seychelles archipelago named after the French naval officer Bertrand Francois Mahe, Compte de la Bourdonnais, who was Governor of La Reunion. Francois’ grandson became the first World Chess Championships Grand Master in 1834. Charles’ son, H H Prince John Bryant Digby de Mahe, inherited the title on the death of his father in 1934. Prince John had married Rachel Guinness - a scion of the Guinness banking family - in 1931.
In 1947 John, Rachel, two daughters and GUK20 set sail for Kenya on the steamship Llanstefan Castle. They had bought a dairy farm called Marischal Farm about 6,000 feet high in Limuru, a European farming area some twenty miles out of Nairobi, at the time when many ex-officers and men of the services were taking up land in Kenya under the Soldier Settlement Schemes. Dairy produce was driven down the unsurfaced murram (clay and gravel) road to Nairobi three times a week. The farm was near the Limuru Country Club where John was a Committee member. The farm had seven horses, thirty milking cows, six steers, four dogs, two cats and a pet monkey.
In 1962, with Kenya independence looming and the future of European farmers uncertain, the farm was sold and the Rolls-Royce was sold to the third official owner, a Kenyan up-country fellow European farmer called Peter Strong of Elgon Downs Farm on the slopes of Mount Elgon, at Endebess near to Kitale close to the Uganda border. Peter christened the car ‘The Duchess’ and as such she was entered into many East African Vintage Car Club rallies and excursions (see photo of Peter and wife Carol at a five lap handicap race at Nakuru track), one of the lengthiest being The Nile Centenary Run to Jinja in Uganda to celebrate the Centenary of the opening of the Rippon Falls Dam, controlling the outfall of Lake Victoria into the river Nile.
Peter sold a part interest in The Duchess to a friend who had a coffee estate on Mount Elgon called Guy D’Olier, to help with the restoration, and later the car was owned unofficially by several members of the local farming community, amongst them being Brian Stutchbury and George McCall (who was a Special Branch Officer in the Kenya Police Reserve) who used the car on his duties in the forests of Mount Kenya and the Aberdares during the Mau Mau Emergency.
In 1969 when the European farms were being bought for African settlement by the British Government Land Purchase Programme, Peter sold The Duchess to John Jeeves, a farmer from Elburgon who was selling up and moving to Rhodesia to continue farming. John chartered a cargo plane to take everything with him which included a Silver Ghost, a Phantom II and sundry tractors and agricultural implements, but sold on GUK20 after only a few months to Colin Crabbe for £350, who was at the time the ‘super sleuth’ locating available vehicles. Colin arranged the shipping to UK with a landed cost of £540. The original Kenya registration number H 8055, was retained thanks to the accommodation of the London Vehicle Licensing Office, being an original London number.
Colin then sold the car for £925 to a business friend, Anthony Eastwood after Anthony’s wife Elizabeth agreed to put up half the money. The Eastwoods owned the car for some fifty years using it for family purposes and steadily carrying out the necessary restorations. The car participated at Her Majesty the Queens Golden Jubilee at Windsor Castle in 2002; and the Centenary of Rolls Royce festivities at Goodwood in 2004, amongst other special events.
A picture of The Duchess together with (possibly) a picture of Her Highness, The Princess de Mahe, appeared in the RREC Bulletin No B311 of March 2012. Wayne Kennerley provided some of the above information given in Bulletin No 312.
In 2022 a letter appeared in the local Kenya magazine ‘Old Africa’ seeking further information on The Duchess, to which I replied, only to find that the letter had been written by The Real Car Company which had the car for sale. Knowing a lot of the history of the car, having driven it in 1968/9 and having been restoring and running Rolls-Royces in Kenya for fifty years, I could not resist the temptation and, after a few nights of indecision, I put in a bid which was accepted.
The car has now had an overdrive fitted and is currently being re-fettled in time for my forthcoming (2023) visit from Kenya to enjoy a month of touring in UK.
by Roger Tanner
