1929 Rolls-Royce 20hp Barker 2dr Coupe GFN10

An attractive and unusual 20 hp. with features such as rear-mounted spare wheel. small back window. tubular bumpers. external windscreen visor. etc. and an interesting folding rear seat arrangement. The car is running well. and offered re-commissioned and newly Mo T tested. following its return from Canada. where it has been idle for some time. and with its original UK registration number now reinstated. A good-looking car. in sound condition. scruffy in some respects. but appealingly so.

Chassis No. GFN 10.

Reg No. UL 4154.

£39. 00.

Snippets: Property Developer to an Irish Hussar

Ordered by Albert Donn. an Eastbourne property developer. GFN 10 was registered in the name of Ethel Donn at their London address of Northgate Mansions. Regent's Park.

(A previous occupier was Lt. S. C. Welinkar. who has the distinction of being the only Indian Pilot to have been awarded the MC during WWI. he died of wounds sustained in action in June 1918.

By 1936 GFN 10 was with Arthur Isaac Phillips of Tunbridge Wells but the following year the car is shown on the chassis card as being with Frederick Alfred Gatty of Overwater Hall built circa 1811 for a Mr Gaff the house was originally called “Whitefield House” & renamed in the early 1900 s as Overwater translates as “The Tarn where the Black Grouse are found”.

Mr Gatty purchased the estate in 1929 (he made the family fortune through the development of Khaki dye which the Army adopted) and upon his death in 1951 the estate & contents were auctioned off the contents numbered over 2. 00 items & included 12 bottles of 1878 Vintage Cognac. 2 cannons & a chair carved from the timbers of “Foudroyant” (Nelson's flagship).

From the chassis cards it would appear that Mr. Gatty only kept GFN 10 for a short time & in May 1937 the car is shown to have been taken over by the Hon W. R. Mc Clintock-Bunbury who at the time was serving with the 15/19 Hussars in York a few months before he became the 4 th Baron Rathdonnell.

His son. the 5 th Baron has been in touch with us & he remembers learning to drive in GFN 10 – which was slightly awkward but not as bad as the Alvis he had at Dartmouth which had a centre accelerator! GFN 10 remained with the Rathdonnells until after the death of the 4 th Baron in 1959.

By 1964 the little 20 hp is shown as having moved to Woodbridge. Ontario & was with D. Mc Coll until 2004.

The town of Woodbridge took its name from the wooden bridge that crossed the River Humber. in 1910 a concrete replica of the bridge was built & is sadly in disrepair.

Notable people from Woodbridge include Elizabeth Arden & the band “Stuck on Planet Earth”.

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