Racing in the Dark by Peter Grimsdale

Author:Peter Grimsdale [Grimsdale, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

31 THE BROOKLANDS SQUAD

Just before Hillstead left Bentley in the spring of 1926, a crisis broke which engulfed the whole country. Deteriorating pay and conditions for Britain’s 1.2 million coal miners culminated in a nine-day strike, which, with the support of half a million transport, steel and dock workers, brought the country to a standstill. Not everyone ‘came out’ in sympathy, or even sympathised. An estimated 300,000 mainly middle-class volunteers stepped in to kept essential services going.

The strike did not spread to car factories. The motor industry was still relatively new and its workers had not yet been unionised. The pay was also better than in the older industries. William Morris, for one, was explicit about his reasons for paying better wages. ‘A low wage is the most expensive method of producing. A moderately high wage gives a man an interest in life. Men are only going to work if they are going to earn more comforts, hobbies and amusements.’ His brand of paternalism was not so different from W.O.’s feelings towards his own tiny workforce.

But many in the British establishment, with the Russian Revolution a recent memory, feared the worst. A Daily Mail editorial entitled ‘For King and Country’ was categorical: ‘A general strike is not an industrial dispute. It is a revolutionary move which can only succeed by destroying the government and subverting the rights and liberties of the people.’ But the printers refused to print it; they too were on strike.

Undaunted, the government decided to spread its message. Its house publisher HMSO – His Majesty’s Stationery Office – would print its own paper, The British Gazette, to reassure the population that things were under control. The editor would be Chancellor of the Exchequer and former journalist Winston Churchill, and each edition would carry the additional headline: ‘Please pass on this copy or display it’. The first edition was ready on 5 May, the second day of the strike. But with the trains at a standstill, how would it be delivered?

A call went out to drivers willing to carry the papers to the provinces.

For wealthy Londoners with large, fast cars, the opportunity to drive flat out with the blessing of the authorities was too good to miss. Woolf Barnato, one of the first to line up, put himself at the head of what would be dubbed the Brooklands Squad, and many Bentley owners eagerly joined in. Neville Minchin in his Rolls-Royce also volunteered.

Hillstead, who was sharing a car, reported to Horse Guards Parade where he found Francis Curzon, the 5th Earl Howe – a Brooklands regular – in charge. His instructions: to collect his papers from a secret address and drive them to Bristol. ‘There’s no speed limit,’ Howe assured him with a smile. ‘And the police are out to help.’

As he passed Buckingham Palace, Hillstead touched 60 mph, and at Hyde Park Corner police held up the traffic to let him through. Noted Minchin: ‘We moved off between 10 and 11pm amid cheers, the start being worthy

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