As Autopuzzle members will know, my best car is the 1938 Lea-Francis that appears below my name to the left of this.
The following is a version of what I wrote for the LFOC a couple of years ago:
Long ago, in 1978 when Barrie Price’s book “The Lea-Francis Story” was first published, I was suitably impressed to read that someone called T. Loftus-Tottenham had owned a 1938 Lea-Francis drophead coupé in 1938 and went on to own a Corsica-bodied Sports Lea-Francis, c/n 115, the following year. That would have been that, had I not bought that same Corsica Sports in 1979 so, as he was the first owner of my car, I tried to find out more, but apart from a fancy name nothing much seemed to be known about him. I think Barrie said he was “. . . a racehorse owner and drinking friend of George Leek (Lea-Francis’ Chairman at the time).”
This year [2014] ebay came up with a page from “The Motor” of April 25 1939 and, as it had a photo of a Corsica Lea-Francis, I bought it. Not only was it my car (the number FLX 191 is clearly visible) but standing next to it was T. Loftus-Tottenham himself! The caption tells us he won a class award in the previous year’s R.A.C. Rally Coachwork Competition – but Barrie had quoted a first prize in the Ramsgate Concours d’Elegance that year.
The magazine photo’s print quality is not up to much so I approached the LAT archive for a good copy but they have not got the photo. However they did tell me they had one of “Mr H T Loftus Tottenham with his Lea-Francis but it was his concours car on the 1938 Welsh Rally so it’s a different model, registration EYF 999.” They sent me a copy but for copyright reasons I'll not post it here.
All this still left me wondering who the man was and these days the internet can be very helpful with an unusual name to search for, so that’s where I started. Typical of a Google search the majority of “hits” where for someone who had written books about and been involved with football, so I had to find a way to ignore him somehow. That left me with Henry Thomas Lloyd Loftus-Tottenham who was born on 22 June 1900, the son of Admiral Henry Loftus Tottenham and Florence Elizabeth Coles. He died on 27 August 1970 at age 70, unmarried. He had had a career in the Royal Engineers in the 1920s and 30s and in 1936 had an address in a flat in Makepeace Mansions, Holly Lodge Estate, Highgate, London N6 (as did his mother). He was publicity manager for Middle East and USA Chase Organics (GB).
The Motor photo shows a brick building in the background which I concluded was not Makepeace Mansions as they are mock Cheshire black-and-white on a brick semi-basement which looks quite different. Back to Google and for some reason I forgot to ignore football so discovered that the man who wrote those books was the same man, as what I found was: Capt. Henry Thomas Lloyd [Loftus-]Tottenham (1900-1970) (Tom) served in the Royal Engineers. Director of Chase Protected Cultivation Ltd., and other Companies. Also Assistant Manager of Queen’s Park Rangers Football Club. Lived at Three Gates, 16 Oatlands Chase, Weybridge.
For some reason I knew that, although the Queen’s Park and the area of London of that name are between Kilburn and Kensal Green, the football club is based in Shepherd’s Bush. What I didn’t know was that the ground it plays on is in, and is named after, Loftus Road! Coincidence of names or not, it is not obvious to me that someone who was Assistant Manager of a Club based there would live in Weybridge (or Highgate).
16 Oatlands Chase, Weybridge turned out to be a small block of flats rather than the up-market house I expected, and it just could be the background in the photo. At this point speculation says he didn’t live a couple of miles from Brooklands by chance and could have seen Charles Follett there when he raced his Carlton-bodied Lea-Francis, c/n 52, which was the prototype sports LeaF of 1938. Further speculation says that garage owners A.G. Saxty of Sunningdale and Ben Walker of Sunninghill, the next two known owners of c/n 115, were also Brooklands habitués (I know that Ben was) and Saxty could buy the car when L-T had had enough of it. I am guessing that Saxty was the second owner but I do know that at some time after 1954 he sold 115 to Ben Walker from whom I bought it in 1979.
So I still know very little about a man who must rank as a significant Lea-Francis enthusiast and I certainly have no idea if he also used the Sports as a rally car – I would like to think he did, of course as that's what I use it for. However, if he had had any success the Works records would surely have had a note for Barrie Price to find, and judging by the extra horns and lights that were fitted to the d.h.c. I would expect he would have had the same arrangement on c/n 115 for rallying, and there’s no sign of them.
This is the photo from The Motor that started it all:
