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SNAPSHOT 88: 1920 Daimler

What a difference a caption can make. When this Daimler 45 h.p. registered XB6220 appeared in Brian Smith’s monumental Daimler Days (1996, 2 vols) it was only known as a 1920 Special. But when it appeared in a society journal that year it was captioned as a Pullman limousine delivered to …. Capt. Woolf Barnato (1895-1948) no less. He was not someone we normally associate with heavy formal cars but in 1920 he was not yet linked to Bentley. Over the years he bought several Rolls-Royces, formal as well as open examples, a large open Wolseley, and this Daimler painted white all over and underneath. How such a car was kept clean is hard to imagine. The actual coachbuilder was Windovers of Long Acre in London, and Huntingdon, and the order was taken in December 1919. Luckily the Windovers records survive at the Hunt House, home of the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation. This coachbuilder was strongly represented in sales of cars to India and Australia. The photograph was probably taken in this unidentified grand setting by the dealer or coachbuilder because Barnato himself at this time lived at 39 Elsworthy Road in suburban Primrose Hill, London. Nearby at 14 Oppidans Mews he ran his Barnato Garage.


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