1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I

1959 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud 1 P.A.S.

Chassis Number: SLG120

Registration Number: GMRR158H (Germany)

The car arrives with us at the end of July after one more outing to Goodwood by the current owner. Upon arrival it wiil have a full service perfomed upon it & also a PDI.

The car is finished in Pacific Green with the car having had a respray at some time in the past in the original colour. Thus the paint is in very nice condition as is the underside which shows no major corrosion at all as a result of always having been garaged. The interior leather in grey shows some wear & will benefit from a re-dye when it arrives with us being otherwise very serviceable & tear free. Picnic tables are fitted to the seat backs & the tool kit is mostly complete in the boot.

The current owner relates the following history of the car:

I was very fortunate to inherit a beautiful 1959 Silver cloud from my late father, some ten years ago.

The second owner was Norman Douglas Holbrook in 1961 hence the number plate NDH4 who purchased it when two years old for £4,950 pounds from deler Mann Edgerton.

Lieutenant Holbrook was a naval officer in WW1 and was the first submariner to receive the Victoria Cross for an act of outstanding bravery , sinking U boats in the Dardanelles. A town in Australia was renamed after him for his efforts.

Following the death of his first wife in 1952, he remarried an Austrian lady , Gundula Bleichart, and they lived on a small country estate near Midhurst , West Sussex. Norman Holbrook died in 1976 and is buried in Steadham village church, Midhurst.

Gundula continued to buy new Rolls Royce as every new model came out , but always kept this the original Silver cloud. It was maintained and valeted by her full time chauffeur. She also enjoyed every two seater Jaguar that came on the market, still driving to Europe at speed, at the age of ninety!

My father , Reg Haydon , managed both the land and her estate from 1978 following Norman's death, and our families became life long friends.

As Gundula's health finally began to fade, at the age of 95 !, and with no living relatives in the UK, she returned to her homeland of Innsbrook, Austria in 2010. On parting , she gifted the beloved Silver cloud to my father.

Gundula died in Austria on News years eve 2020, at the age of 106.

My father died in 2016, and the car came down to me. We had a small amount of mechanical work done to it at the time, and I have kept it in conditioned storage since. For the last ten years we have taken it out to Goodwood horse races every year , which was a mecca for my father and his friends, and we raise a glass to Dad & Gundula.

This is overall a very original & un-messed around example in good driving order with a continuous & detailed history. We will do a full photo shoot on it as soon as it arrives with us.