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| The Polish Winged Cavalry |
In the Autumn of 1965 the most radical design for Rolls-Royce was revealed to the public at the Paris Motor Show. Dealers caught their first glimpse of the car on September 30th and October 1st. As you know, the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow (and the Bentley T Series) were designed by John Blatchley who produced a far more compact design than the previous Silver Cloud but with at least as much interior space.
Parked beside the current models, the Shadow appears dainty and elegant indeed, a car easy to use and manage (except parking!) in the traffic conditions of 2025.
Being of a monocoque construction with self-leveling suspension and disc brakes, it marked the most significant departure in 60 years from the chassis based, coach-built models of the past. From the outset it was designed with the owner/driver in mind. Over a period of more than 10 years, 16,717 Silver Shadows and 1712 Bentley T-Series were produced making it the most successful Rolls-Royce of all time. A much underestimated car and a revolution at the time.
I have owned mine for over 38 years and it remains completely original. I feel it is high time I wrote something about my extensive experience with this magnificent vehicle, the background to my ownership as far as I can ascertain, even if neglecting and remaining tactfully silent of my own detailed 'adventurous history' with it.
Being still rather preoccupied with present personal pleasures in my Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, I never carried out the highly valuable, meticulous and deeply detailed research into the former custodians as has the remarkable sleuth David Davies on 'Sir Blue' (Spirit & Speed 397 May 2025).
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1904-1990 |
The original build sheets of my example, SRH 18723 from the Hunt House, which I retain, indicate that my car was completed on February 5th 1974. It was originally purchased new from the esteemed Mann Egerton & Co. Ltd. W1 on 18th June 1974 (registration VGY 898 M) by the eminent surgeon, Mr. Philip N. Cutner (F.R.C.S. Edinburgh 1934) of Harley Street and Bedford Square, London WC1. Born in Glasgow he was educated in Sydney Australia, returning to Edinburgh University to train in Medicine (MB ChB 1931) and was later awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (1934).
Interestingly, he had trained as an orthodox physician who converted enthusiastically to
homeopathy. He was an Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Royal London Homeopathic
Hospital where in 1938 he pioneered many orthopaedic, manipulative and sports injury procedures. This work became legendary during the blitz.
His wife Lydia Cutner (1912-2004) was a renowned homeopathic nurse whom he had met during the war. Both were great philanthropists and set up a still functioning endowment fund for orthopaedic surgery. Philip Cutner was also elected a Fellow of the Hunterian Society in 1947, one of the oldest medical societies in England. He was also curiously a member of the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain, which boded well for the car's future adventurous history under my guidance!
I purchased the Silver Shadow in Wargrave near Henley-on-Thames on 19 May 1987 and paid £12,850 which would be equivalent to circa £36,495 in 2025. Not a great financial investment in real terms but wonderful in every other way. It had covered a mere 30,917 miles. I hoped to set up a cultural tour business visiting stately homes and landscaped gardens whilst delivering accompanying historic lectures.
In the foggy intervening years since the Philip Cutner ownership, the car had become part of the fleet used by the Sultan of Oman, HM Qaboos bin Said Al Said, who loved the village of Wargrave and Rolls-Royce motor cars. This explains the 'royal' registration plate 907 HRH (actually Kingston upon Hull registration) which I have retained to rather 'pretentiously display' the car with some amusement (current Polish registration WF 02Y).
Educated in England and at RMA Sandhurst, he took a keen interest in youth projects. As part of an Omani Evening in 1985 he contributed an 'Arabian Feast' together with a group of fully costumed ritual Royal Omani Sword Dancers and Musicians in the Wargrave Festival.
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| A cultural treasure - the Sword Dancers of Oman (CGTN) |
The Sultan bought the Manor of Wargrave and the title in 1973. He did not live there but his mother and some of his wives did until she died. They used the cars and he was also chauffeured in them on his visits. The manor was in addition a horse stud where he bred thoroughbred Arabians.
There is a strong and enduring relationship between the UK and
Oman. On 3 April 2015, the then Prime Minister Mr. David Cameron, spoke on
the telephone to Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said following the recent trade agreement
reached in Lausanne between the E3/EU+3. The 'E3' now comprises France, Germany
and Italy and the 'EU+3' includes the non-European countries, the United
States, Russia and China. Cameron had thanked him for the key role he
played at the beginning of the process. Much in geopolitics and international
relations has transpired since then. An Iranian delegation will hold
nuclear talks with the E3 in Rome in May 2025.
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The Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said of Oman with Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on a state visit to Oman, 2010 (BBC News) |
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Wargrave Manor nr. Henley-on-Thames where SRH 18723 used to visit (Neil Tomlinson - Architects) This large Grade II listed country house lies in a landscaped park dating from the late 18th century and altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was owned by Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said of Oman for 40 years before he died on January 10, 2020. This eminent personage was a great benefactor of financial appeals and philanthropic gestures in Wargrave, often performed in in secret. The house was used by members of his family when he visited the UK. |
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| The rather more modest Bauhaus landscaped estate in Poland where the car now resides The car still lives permanently with me in Warsaw. I have now owned 'Roland' for over 38 years The financial management training programme in Poland of which I had become the Project Manager, began to disintegrate for various complex reasons associated with the many rapid changes in society that accompanied the fall of communism in Poland in the early 1990s. The Swiss educational foundation that employed me found the learning curve in East-Central Europe rather steep. They considered that the Poles had begun to over-extend themselves. |
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907 HRH and Michael at the Mazovian Ducal Castle of Liw on the former Russian Polish Frontier |
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The Silver Shadow SRH18723 before the entrance to the Citadel, Warsaw 1993. This vast defensive edifice was built by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia between 1832 and 1834 following the suppression of the November Insurrection |
I am afraid adventurous ideas of past Polish military glamour had taken over my spirit, as it tends to do. I had read the romantic story of one of the greatest Polish national military heroes, General Władisław Sikorski, allegedly being driven out of Poland in his rakish 1938 Rolls-Royce Phantom III drophead coupé through Romania to Paris ahead of the German invasion in 1939. He was to take up the position of Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile in the French capital before relocating to London.
This magnificent drophead coupé, chassis 3CM 81, has a dashing two-seater body by the glamorous coachbuilder Vanvooren of Paris. The first owner was one Stefan Czarnecki but according to a Sotheby’s catalogue of May 1969, the car was built to the special instructions of General Sikorski and delivered to him in Warsaw (The Derby Phantoms Lawrence Dalton, RREC 1991 p.394). It is now magnificently restored and resides in England.
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| The General Władisław Sikorski 1938 Rolls-Royce Phantom III drophead coupé by Vanvooren of Paris, Chassis 3CM 81 (Peter Bradfield) |
A Rolls-Royce Phantom II was used by the Polish revolutionary and Chief of State of the Republic of Poland, Field Marshal Józef Piłsudski. The controversial Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, Marshal Śmigły-Rydz, reviewed troops and cavalry regiments in a Phantom II All Weather Tourer until the Soviet invasion of 1939. He once memorably remarked of Poland's grim destiny ' Germany will destroy our body; Russia will destroy our soul' (Quoted in Poland’s Politics: Idealism versus Realism A Bromke [Cambridge, Mass 1967] 26)
I decided to distract myself from dwelling on the slow death of the contract with a memorable adventure. In June 1993 I decided to take part in an international car rally around Poland - the first since 1913. My friends, mechanics, family - in fact anyone at all - thought I was insane with Kalashnikov car-jackings rife, to take the Rolls-Royce to Poland that summer.
Listening to Chopin mazurkas, Bach and Mozart as one wafts through the countryside summer or winter is an irresistible pleasure, cosseted in this superb, completely underrated touring vehicle with its capacious boot and luxurious interior, not unlike an Edwardian library. The 1974 Silver Shadow SRH18723 in Shell Grey with light blue leather is unmolested and has never ‘failed to proceed’ since my ownership began in ambient temperatures ranging from 40C to -25C.
The account of my first adventurous drive to Warsaw from London in 1992 was also entitled 'Husaria' after the famous Polish winged cavalry. It was published in the RREC Bulletin 195 November/December 1992 p.65
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Ideological Conflict - the noble RR Silver Shadow SRH18723 sets off Stalin's Monolith known as the Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw |
A detailed, highly entertaining, account of the 1993 rally around Poland in this car is contained in the literary travel book I wrote about the country entitled A Country in the Moon (Granta, London 2008)
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| The rally assembled at picturesque Kazimierz Dolny near Warsaw 1993 SRH18723 is parked in the top right-hand corner |
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Highly skilled hot welding of the broken left bank, cast iron exhaust manifold on the RR later in the rally. A great accident drama followed by immense Polish hospitality (food, bed and vodka) over days betraying the national genius for improvisation |
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The colourful Krzysztof who drove a BMW 'Dixie' on the rally and who kept us amused throughout ! At the conclusion of the rally, a most moving picture of an invalid being lifted from his wheelchair by his friend upon asking to see the interior of the Rolls-Royce 1993 |
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Winter in wonderful traffic-free days 32 years ago near Żelazowa Wola, the birthplace of the Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin The 1974 Silver Shadow SRH18723 |
Over the years since my purchase, living at 26 Wheatley Street, St. Marylebone W.1 in London from 1973 until the move to Warsaw in 2005, this impressive vehicle took myself, much Bollinger champagne and some attractive ladies many times through the London Season - Henley, Ascot, Hickstead, Lords, Goodwood, Guards Polo, Cartier Polo as well as Christmas and New Year on the Scottish borders, countless National Trust stately homes, summer picnics, influential parties, operas and concerts.
 Yours truly picnicking ensemble at Royal Ascot 1996  Pretentious, moi? |
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Royal Ascot 1996 If I had suggested to anyone in the early 1990s that a Polish Section of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club could be established, I would have been considered 'a suitable case for treatment'. However, this was accomplished on 23 April 2016 and I was elected Secretary of the Polish Section.
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Making the best of it on a rainy, pandemic-riddled evening, 4th May 2021, Karowa Street, Warsaw 2021 
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SRH18723 outside the Covid deserted and closed Hotel Bristol Warsaw 4th May 2021 |
As life goes on, the adventures I have had over the years accumulate but have become increasingly more civilized. When the 20-Ghost Club visited Poland in the summer of 2017, some 30 unique, pre-War Rolls-Royces took part. Such a large group of pre-war cars visiting Poland was completely unprecedented in the history of the country.
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Loitering among visiting members of the 20-Ghost Club outside the Sofitel Warsaw 2017 |
Owning and maintaining a complex car such
as a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in Poland (mine for 38 years now) remains an
ongoing challenge, and I’d like to think that finally - in a way - the universe
rewarded me for it.
As that great engineer Sir Henry Royce once commented, remarks that now steer my future destiny: 'Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble. The quality will remain long after the price is forgotten.' One should never forget, a Rolls-Royce is far more than a motorcar. It is a way of life. My life.
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Outside the walls of the Katyń Museum at the Warsaw Citadel 2020  The day after the death of Queen Elizabeth II Mascot appropriately encircled by black ribbon |
Much more information on the Shadow is here from the Rolls-Royce Press Club
A few of my own experiences and adventures with classic cars
