1924 ROLLS-ROYCE Silver Ghost 54RM (TC 9414) 'REX'

Picture of 'Rex' found in "Great Marques of Britain" book.

A few days after getting the car, I sent a picture of it to Howard Phillips, a friend of mine. This was very lucky, as he still had the picture of my car in his mind when he purchased a cheap car book from a local charity shop. He recognised a picture of my car in the book and called me to tell me about it.

The book he had found was the "Great Marques of Britain" book by Jonathan Wood and the very large picture of 54RM appeared over pages 234 and 235. This book was first published in 1984, so the picture must have been taken while the car was still owned by Rex Sevier.

I immediately set about putting out feelers to get a copy of this book for myself. In the end, I found it was available from one of the old book specialists who had attended the R-REC National Rally at Towcester a few days later.

To my surprise, in response to and advert I had placed in the R-REC Advertise, in case I was unable to find the book else where, a local friend, Richard Staples, told me he had found the picture of 54RM that I was looking for, but that it was not in the "Great Marques of Britain" book by Jonathan Wood, but in another book by Jonathan Wood with the title: "Great Marques Rolls-Royce".

Within no time at all, I had managed to get a copy of the "Great Marques Rolls-Royce" book for myself, and it was true, it used exactly the same double-page picture of 54RM as used in the "Great Marques of Britain" book. It appeared that this "Great Marques Rolls-Royce" book actually came first, as it was first published in 1982.

Picture of 'Rex' found on the front cover of "Cars - The Old Classics" book.

The story does not stop there. At the Northern Annual Rally, at Harewood House, 11th August 2002, I had arranged to met one of the car's previous owners; Jack Gillam. On his invitation, I went to his home in Tadcaster after the rally to buy back some of the original car parts removed from 54RM by Jack went he owned the car. Jack was excited to show me a copy of the "Great Marques Rolls-Royce" book at it had a picture of 54RM in it. I had to tell him that I had not only already seen the book, but had a copy myself. However, Jack then showed me a copy of another book: "Cars - The Old Classics" which had the very same picture of 54RM as used in two the Jonathan Wood books, but this time it was on the front cover!.

Even though the car was pictured on the front cover, there was no other reference to the car inside the book, except a credit to Chris Linton, the photographer.

As I had given jack quite an amount to buy back the old car parts, Jack gave me this book free of charge.

The full details of this book are: Large (12" x 9"), but very thin, 80 pages, St. Michael's (Marks and Spencer PLC), titled: "Cars - The Old Classics" (From the Early days to 1945) by Andrew Whyte, with 54RM on the front cover. ref: 1361/2017 on the back and PDO 83-585 after the index at the rear (= printed in 1983?).

After visiting Jack Gillam's and getting the last book, I drove on to derby and visited Rex Sevier, another of 54RM's previous owners.
The next morning after staying with Rex, Rex took us to nearby Tissington Hall and told us that this is where the photograph used in all the above publications was taken. (Tissington Hall, Tissington, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, DE6 1RA). Apparently, Rex and the photographer (Chris Linton?) had had to return more than once to get the right light and conditions.

As the first book containing this picture was published in 1982, I guess that the picture was actually taken in 1981.

We took the following photograph of 54RM in roughly the same location for our scrap book.

Picture of 'Rex' outside Tissington Hall again in 2002.