Image: Historics Auctioneers
Field Marshal Montgomery’s wartime vehicle of choice, a V12 Rolls-Royce Phantom limousine, has fetched more than £100,000 at an auction.
The chauffeur-driven car used by Montgomery, who was bestowed the freedom of the Borough of Maidenhead in the months after VE Day 1945, was sold by Iver-based Historics Auctioneers on Saturday (May 3).
The luxurious Rolls-Royce also carried wartime dignitaries King George VI and President Dwight D. Eisenhower - and includes a special cigar lighter added for Sir Winston Churchill’s use.
Historics’ head of auctions Mathew Priddy said: “With the people that have sat in this car, I’m thinking this should be one of the most iconic cars offered anywhere this year.”
Field Marshal Montgomery, nicknamed ‘Monty’, was a British Army officer who led the force's efforts in fighting in ferocious campaigns in Europe and Africa.
Under Montgomery’s leadership, the British Eighth Army thwarted a Nazi advance across Egypt, Libya and Tunisia during which the famed Desert Rats soldiers came to prominence.
In Europe, he led British forces during the liberation of Italy and was a central figure in the planning of Operation Overlord – the Allies’ daring mission to spark the liberation of Europe.
He used the Rolls-Royce extensively when in England - particularly during the build up to D-Day - when travelling between his homes in Virginia Water, the south coast, and London.
“I can imagine an awful lot was done in that drive from Virginia Water into London or from anywhere into Portsmouth,” Mr Priddy said.
“Although this is a Rolls-Royce V12 that can go at great speeds, [in the 1940s] the M4 the M25 didn’t exist in their current guise, so you couldn’t go that fast.
“You had time - and I imagine that time was spent wisely.”
The car was sold for more than £100,000 to a private collector at Farnborough Airshow on Saturday.
At the end of World War II, Montgomery was invited by the then Borough of Maidenhead Council to a ceremony where he was bestowed a symbolic freedom of the borough.
As reported by the Advertiser, dated October 24, 1945, Montgomery told a crowd of 1,200 people who stood outside the Rialto Cinema in Bridge Street:
“I should like to begin by thanking you very much indeed for the great welcome you have given me to Maidenhead, a town in which I have never been to before; but I do feel I now have a good right to be here.
He continued: “I like to think that the welcome I have had here is not intended only for me, but is really a mark of your gratitude to those men and women who have been mixed up with me in this business of the last few years.
“Many of whom come from the county of Berkshire have fought with me right through this campaign.”
Historics Auctioneers' next auction takes place near Windsor in July.
Altre news
Most read
Top Articles
A gang of drug dealers have been jailed after £250,000 worth of cocaine, cash and weapons were seized by police in Windsor, Slough and Maidenhead.
A murder investigation has been launched in Slough after a 46-year-old man was killed in an attack.
The Conservatives lost a long-held majority at Buckinghamshire Council and fell one seat short of the 49 needed - but how did the votes fall in the county's south?