The tourer, finished in green, was purchased by Edgar Alfred Lawmon of Lordswood Road in Harborne and taxed by him on 5th June 1936. For 6 months during 1941 ownership was transferred to his son Roger, who was in the army at the time. There is intermittent evidence of taxation and petrol ration books during the war years, but not in 1944-5. In March 1946 Roger Lawmon came out of the army and in July took over ownership of the tourer. Like his father, he was a salesman for Berkel meat slicers. In late 1946 he married and moved to Cardiff.
In 1948 he, his wife Joan and the tourer went to South Africa. However, things did not work out and he and the car were back in Southampton on 16th December 1949. He first lived in Winscombe, Somerset, and then Swansea. However, apparently because the boot of the tourer could not accommodate a bacon slicer, he sold the car in Swansea on August 3rd 1950 to a Frank Guy Harris. Four years later he met his second wife Naomi, whom he married in 1955. I am extremely grateful to Naomi (Roger's widow) for filling in some of the above details and for sending me two pre-war photos.
I have been quite unable to track down Frank Harris or two subsequent owners (Alan Gilbert of Hayes End Middlesex, and Lillian Brown of the Prince Albert, Kings Cross). Anyone have any information?
Although I inherited a green door and one green seat when I bought the dismantled tourer in 1972, I have changed the body colour to blue.
The photos are of Roger Lawmon with the car and of a crew of passengers which include his sister. It is interesting to have a photo showing the original sidescreens and rear windows, which appear to provide good all-round vision. Also I see that the rear-view mirror was mounted on the scuttle, whereas I made use of holes already drilled in the top of the windscreen. Of course scuttle mounting makes more sense if you are going to fold the screen flat. It is good to see that the seats (like mine) are of the figure-hugging bucket variety, unlike those with flatter backs on some 1936 models.
As an update I recently made contact with Alan Gilbert's son Tony, who sent me a picture of the car outside Alan's parents' house around 1952-4, with Alan's sister Joan in the driver's seat. Amazingly, Tony is currently restoring another 1936 12hp tourer.
