Kenneth More
This is also from May 1960, and is of a proper famous person - Kenneth More signing autographs at the Imperial College fete!...
Oops
This is from May 1960, and is titled "Piper Equipe, Oxford" - looks like a driver or two had an eventful time at some meeting or other! Unfortunately I'm not good enough to identify the cars, and haven't yet been able to work out where they'd been racing, or who the guilty drivers were....
Work
In, I think, 1959, my father actually got a job - having seemingly managed to put it off until he was 27. It sounds late, but a degree would have taken him to 22, plus another year for a Masters, 2 years working on a PhD and 2 years National Service adds up!And in fact, it was the only job he ever got - he worked at the same place (for Plessey at the Allen Clark Research Centre at Caswell in Northamptonshire) until he retired.I'm probably breaking all sorts of rules by publishing these, but I doubt there are any still-secret innovations in a lab almost 50 years ago.It looks like what I think of as proper chemistry - bell jars and that sort of thing, although there seems to be a disappointing lack of bunsen burners. Interesting to see what looks suspiciously like a car battery in there though!...
Le Mans 1959
As promised, here are the pictures from Le Mans in 1959.
Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa (Phil Hill's car), photographed at "Pesage", which I think is scrutineering.
A whole load of Ferraris (250's and a Dino), also at Scrutineering
An Aston Martin DBR1 - the car that came second (just behind an identical car)
The start - I still can't believe how close everyone is to the track, and not a safety fence in sight!
Stirling Moss retiring from the race in the evening - another Aston Martin DBR1
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France / Belgium, 1959
In June 1959, my dad and his friend Bill Greenstreet went to the Continent for a holiday - not a common thing to do in those days. No nipping over on the cross-channel ferry for them. Instead they used the wonderfully named "Air Bridge" - a Bristol freighter which flew them to France. That's Bill's car being loaded.
A typical French road, lined with plane trees - near Nogent-Sur-Seine if you're really interested.
The Basilica in Lisieux
This is Le Mans cathedral, and that should tell you a lot about why they really went to France. The first box of 50 black and white films can probably be summarised as "student days", while the second box (the one I'm on now) can probably be summed up as "petrolhead" - it looks like about half of the films are dedicated to motorsport meetings all over the place - Silverstone, Brands Hatch and most significantly of all, Le Mans. But, we'll come to that soon...
After...