Bentleybob 3 solved Lionel Rapson Rolls Royce 1920

Started by bentleybob, October 29, 2011, 08:34:21 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

woodinsight

Quote from: bentleybob on December 18, 2011, 11:18:52 AM
Very active in many branches of the automotive branch
When you say active in many branches of the motor industry do you mean motor dealers/spare parts/accessories or builders of bus/commercial vehicle bodywork?

bentleybob

I will leave it to you to sort that out ;)

woodinsight

Quote from: bentleybob on December 19, 2011, 12:19:16 PM
I will leave it to you to sort that out ;)
Okay, I'll have another guess soon...... ;)

woodinsight

W.H. Arnold of London W1?

The dates tend to fit with what has been revealed so far and the company also built bodies on Rolls-Royce.
He became bankrupt in 1924 - he blamed the McKenna duties on imported cars for his plight.
Sadly these duties were abolished a few months later, too late to save his situation.

pnegyesi

If not WH Arnold, was this company also a dealer?

bentleybob


woodinsight

Could the person be Sir William Angus of the Angus-Sanderson car manufacturing company?
Apart from building cars they were also involved in coachbuilding.
Apparently in 1920 they bodied a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (chassis 138BW).

bentleybob

No it isn't. The story is about a much louder man than the car he had build...

pnegyesi

It sounds like a car with a Silent Knight engine...

bentleybob

A Rolls Royce never had a Silent Knight engine... :-[

bentleybob

Tottering towards extinction? :o

woodinsight

Was the owner an opera singer?

bentleybob

As I said before: active in many branches of the motor industry. Prolific. Loud. Think parts, accessoires etc. Other than in the bathroom, I don't think he qualified as an opera singer :lmao:

pnegyesi

Member of the Lucas family?

woodinsight

or a member of the Halfords family?

Allan L

or one of the Brown Brothers?
Opinionated but sometimes wrong

bentleybob

Nope ;) The success did not last...

pnegyesi


bentleybob

Think marketing genius, good accessoiries and tyres, but collapse integrated into the the very fabric of the system...

Allan L

Ah I think it may be Lionel Rapson, although one associates him more with Lanchester products than Royce's
Opinionated but sometimes wrong

bentleybob

 ;D Yes, Allan has got it. Mr Rapson was a producer od all sorts of gizmo's he thought of or which he bought from inventors, as well as of apparently a successful production system of tyres which he promoted relentlessly, and in the relatively new automotive market he quickly elbowed his way in to the the top of society including the Royal family. His financial base was unstable though, and he was always busy obtaining finance without caring too much whence it came from. In the end many of his claimed inventions were either replaced by improved versions of others or did not work in the first place, the Rolls-Royce he had built was widely publisiced both in England and outside, but his brash behavior resulted it him being snubbed increasingly by
society, and his companies folded and went bankrupt. Mr Rapson travelled Europe, financed by a wealthy Swiss lady, whose family were not very happy with the way he spend their money.