Barker Sports Coupe chassis No B132 HK, purchased by H T de V Clifton in Feb 1937

This attractive two-door pillarless fixed head coupe was built in 1936 and shown on Barker's stand at the 1936 Olympia Motor Show. Originally, the car was painted in yellow with a tan hide interior. It is now painted in black and maroon with a maroon hide interior, following restoration in the late 1980s. After purchase in February 1937, the car was shipped to the USA, probably for use by Harry Clifton during his courtship of Lillian Greswold, an American divorcee from Boston, MA.

According to a book written on the Clifton family (including the last of the line, Harry or HT, as he is known) by a former estates manager who worked at Lytham Hall for HT, when he inherited before he was 21, HT became the wealthiest commoner in Britain at the time and had about L3 million at his disposal. And dispose of it he did! He died in 1979 with about L35,000 to his name and without heir. He fancied himself as an art collector but got ripped off by dealers all over the world. He was a benefactor of an occult church in LA to the tune of L40,000 in the 1930s. He traveled widely and stayed at the best hotels with an entourage. At Christmas 2000 the writer, when lunching at Ballikinrain Castle, Killearn, Stirlingshire, met a lady in her 80's who had known Harry very well during the 40's. He was clearly attracted to her and apparently told her that in a former life she was an Egyptian princess and he was an Egyptian prince and they had consorted together on the banks of the Nile! The writer has also met a former neighbour of Harry's sister who lived in Helensburgh.

HT's marriage in October 1937 to Lillian Greswold did not last long. After they returned to Lytham Hall from the States in 1938, one night after drink and argument, Mrs Clifton tried to get into HT's room by edging along a narrow band at first floor level between the windows of a dressing room and his bedroom. The inevitable happened: she fell and was nearly killed. She spent many months recovering but they were divorced in 1941, not long afterwards.

The father of one of the present staff at Lytham Hall knew HT's chauffeur very well and remembered the yellow Bentley. He said the chauffeur had told him two stories of HT's strange antics:

One night at 5pm the chauffeur was summoned and told that they would be driving to the Lake District to a hotel where HT had to meet someone coming down from Scotland with a package. The meeting was scheduled for 7.30pm. They drove up in silence, arriving at the hotel at 7.35 pm. HT went in, found that the man was not there, turned on his heel and got back in the car and drove back to Lytham without waiting for more than five minutes. The other party arrived soon afterwards.

Another night, in the summer of 1938, HT was returning to Lytham by train to Preston, where the chauffeur was waiting to meet him from the train. The train was late. When HT arrived, he got into the car and told the chauffeur to drive to the Hall without stopping and that if he stopped the car just once he would be sacked. Apparently the chauffeur was very concerned about this instruction as he knew that the main wrought iron gates with lodge would be normally be closed at 6pm, and there was no way in which he could meet that deadline. Arriving at the gates well after 6pm, he found them to be open and was much relieved. Having driven down the drive, there was a wooden gate about 50 yards from the house which, on approach, was noted to be shut. He slowed down, intending to stop and open it as he did not imagine HT would want him to do otherwise so close to home. HT turned to him and reminded him of the consequences of stopping and told him to drive straight through the gate, which he then did.

Interestingly, the car is noted in the chassis records as having been returned to Derby for repair for a front end collision in August 1938, and was sold thereafter to someone in Liverpool. A subsequent owner lived in Heswall, on the Wirral, the village where the writer was brought up!

Neill Fraser