GEORGE FORMBY’S JAGUAR

On the 28th and 29th January of next year Anglia Car Auctions are selling a rather special 1959 manual gearbox Jaguar 3.4 Mk. 1. Chassis number S976920DN was once the property of Britain’s highest-paid comedian; George Formby OBE

As is well known, Formby was almost as much an automotive fanatic as Peter Sellers. As a young comic, he promised himself that when he topped the bill at the London Palladium, he would buy two cars; a Rolls-Royce for his wife Beryl and a Bentley or an SS1 for himself. After all, did not The Motor describe the last-named as “a car built for the connoisseur”?

The formidable Mrs. Formby, who served as the comedian’s business manager, further decreed that once they had saved £50,000 in cash, asides from their other investments, George was permitted to buy two new cars per year. They were acquired on their wedding anniversary and usually bore the number plates ‘GF1’ or ‘GF2’. George ordered many of his vehicles from Fred Howson of the Preston car dealership Loxhams Garage, ‘Lancashire’s Leading Motor Agents’, although the Jaguar hailed from Woodhead’s Garage in Blackpool.

George is believed to have bought 131 cars during his lifetime, 26 of which were Rolls-Royces. Such machinery was in marked contrast to his daily allowance of five shillings allotted by Beryl. She once remarked, “if I leave George alone for a minute, he goes off and buys a new car or a new jumper”. As the story goes, Mrs. Formby registered the vehicles in her name.

As for the Jaguar Mk. 1, it was involved in an accident on Bank Holiday Monday, the 5th of August 1959. When driving through East Finch en route to Great Yarmouth, where he was starring in Summer Season at the Windmill Theatre, an Austin A30 hit his car. Both drivers initially appeared to incur little more than cuts and bruises, but then George went into a cataleptic shock. He was driven to the hospital by an attending doctor, who did not want to risk waiting for the ambulance.

The Austin driver was later found guilty of dangerous driving while Formby told the court, “it’s lucky I have a car with terrific braking power”. Before the end of the year, he part exchanged the Mk1 for £1,425 at Mann Egerton of Norwich, with the ‘GF2’ plate being transferred to a Sherwood Green Mk. IX.

You can read more about the Formby Mk. 1 here, and for anyone who wishes to learn more of its remarkable first owner, the biography by David Bret is recommended reading. And if the new owner of GF2 does not say “turned out nice again” on signing the paperwork, they really should do.

With Thanks To: Anglia Car Auctions