The
show car, the surgeon and the boxer
1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II 56WJ
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1927 ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM I TOURER ASCENDS THE STELVIO PASS ON THE 2023 ALPINE TOUR |
The adventures of this once 'family' Phantom II began in
1929 in Scotland. Owned by a war hero and renowned surgeon before
accompanying an athlete (my maternal grandfather) who made his money as a boxing coach as well imparting arcane instructions to an erotic dancer.
The first owner of this Rolls-Royce, built and
exhibited at the Scottish Motor Show in 1929, was Sir Howard Bowdon, CEO of the
renowned Raleigh Bicycle Company.
The car was then sold and was transported to Sydney, Australia in 1936, the second owner being a Dr Hugh Poate (1884-1961). A resident physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he researched ductless glands. In 1908 he travelled to London and was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons.
Enlisted as a captain in the Australian
Imperial Force from 1914, Poate spent much of his time during the war
operating, amusingly earning the nickname 'Lightning' for his deft and swift
surgical technique.
After the war, Poate conducted a successful private practice,
chartering a Tiger Moth aircraft as a famous 'flying doctor' for his Australia-wide country medical and treatment tours. From 1936 he continued to enjoy his Rolls-Royce and in 1938 he became lecturer in postgraduate surgery and director
of the surgical unit at Prince Henry Hospital.
Poate published a significant
number of articles in medical journals and was considered an international
authority on thyroid surgery. Knighted
in 1952, he was a man of great integrity, committed to the highest standards in
all he attempted.
My British maternal grandfather, George Mason, was born 1895 in Liverpool and became the second Australian owner, acquiring the motor car in 1950. A 21 year old Rolls-Royce is regarded as just a youngster after all. I was certainly just a child when in a 'Brief Encounter' experienced my first family Rolls-Royce. The overwhelming impression has never left me!
Mason was a professional boxer and a Bantam Weight Champion of the British Empire. During the Great War he fought with the Gordon Highlanders in the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front. He was wounded twice but returned to action on both occasions. His wounds left a lasting legacy he successfully overcame.
After the Armistice he attempted to set up fitness centers in New York, far ahead of his time, but lost everything in the Wall Street crash of 1929. He also made some unfortunate Australian investments.
Following these reversals, for some years he became the chief Physical Education Instructor on the luxurious Cunard liners that sailed from Southampton to New York. The R.M.S Berengaria (the pride of the Cunard fleet), R.M.S Mauretania and R.M.S Aquitania crossed the Atlantic in glamorous, leisurely style from Southampton to New York before our ubiquitous, uncivilized air travel.
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First Class Dining Saloon aboard R.M.S. Berengaria |
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The Tiller Girls in 1926 taking a turn about the deck ensemble of R.M.S Berengaria. They were a long-running English dance troupe, known for their precision and synchronization, particularly the high kicks |
Swordplay on deck - ladies in an unusual fencing match on 1st July 1923
One is the supremely beautiful Princess Ileana of Romania (1909-1991)
My grandfather, George Mason (standing centre in white), was physical education instructor on this vessel, the R.M.S. Berengaria and other Cunard liners
(Getty Images)
Mason developed as a successful international coach in physical education at a rather elevated level, training among other notables the Prince of Wales ('Bertie'), his close friend the explorer Sir Earnest Shackleton, the famous American champion boxer Jack Dempsey and many other well-known but now forgotten champion boxers), the Oxford and Cambridge Olympic Track Team and practiced physical movement gestures with the notorious erotic dancer Maud Allan of Oscar Wilde Salome fame.
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Maud Allan as Salome |
The excellent salary and lavish gifts from his 'clients' placed him in a position to consider buying a much desired Rolls-Royce in the future. The more athletic passengers favoured boxing and exercise with a 'medicine ball' while crossing the Atlantic. The 'medicine ball, is a weighted ball whose diameter is about a shoulder-width. The size of a medicine ball is approximately 350 mm (13.7 in), often used for rehabilitation and strength training. In those days such methods were regarded as a properly ‘masculine’, fashionable and attractive way to exercise.
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George Mason (Rt.) sparring on the RMS Aquitania |
Mason made a great deal of money coaching at this high level. He was married to an English lady from Hampstead in London and they went on to settle in Australia where he ran a farm, a hotel and from 1950, this Rolls-Royce Phantom which he kept for 6 years.
During WW II Mason fought in Papua New Guinea with the Australian Army. He later worked profitably for Tattersall's Club, the lottery and gambling organization. Farming also occupied his time at a property near Penrith in New South Wales. He part-owned the Apsley Arms Hotel in Walcha, a small town 425 kilometres by road from Sydney at the intersection of the Oxley Highway and Thunderbolts Way..
As stated, the car arrived in Australia in 1936 and was first owned in Sydney by the aforementioned Dr Hugh Poate. George Mason was the second Australian owner, acquiring 56WJ in 1950, registration plate NSW AP-112. He bought the car from Dr Poate and ran the car for some six years. In the book Rolls-Royce and Bentley in the Sunburnt Country: The First Fifty Years of Rolls-Royce in Australia (Tom Clarke & David Neely) the car is last noted in Tasmania in the 1970s. Tom Clarke is sure this car used to have a de ville front portion (now sealed), and the rear landaulette portion that was also sealed.
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George Mason's 1929 Phantom II, chassis no. 56WJ with Thrupp & Maberly landaulette de ville coachwork photographed in the outback of New South Wales around 1953 |
I discovered
little in detail about his period of ownership except he often carried lambs in
the rear compartment around his farm! Ill health precipitated the sale of
the car some six years later to the mysterious Punjabi Mr. Doabi who was in the
mining business. This industrialist carried heavy samples of rock in the rear
compartment for mineral testing in laboratories! Australian Rolls-Royce motor
cars often experienced a tough life.
56WJ is illustrated in two photographs on p. 192 of Rolls-Royce : The Derby Phantoms by Lawrence Dalton and was displayed at the Scottish Motor Show of 1929.
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56 WJ at the 1929 Scottish Motor Show (The Derby Phantoms Dalton p.192) 56 WJ (The Derby Phantoms Dalton p.192) * * * * * * * * * * Embracing the Phantom in 2025 Much more on the evolution of the Rolls-Royce Phantom is available here in an excellent historical essay: also PHANTOM GOLDFINGER MAKES PUBLIC DEBUT AT CONCORSO D’ELEGANZVILLA D’ESTE FOR NAMEPLATE’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY29.05.2025 PRESS RELEASE |
