Friday Lady's sporting drive

• 

It's February 1950, and British motorists are rejoicing because petrol rationing has just been brought to an end. Some would-be drivers are feeling nothing other than frustration, though. With the government requiring almost all new cars to be sold overseas, supply simply cannot meet demand and any second-hand car worth owning commands a premium. The impecunious young provincial clerk trying to scrape together some funds for his first car is faced with a simple choice: a clapped-out Austin Ruby or nothing at all.

A bargain at just £75

Mrs. Patricia Gardiner can sympathise. Here she is photographed outside her handsome suburban home in Feltham, which she moved into in the summer of 1939 after marrying Douglas Gardiner, a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force. Flt. Lt. Gardiner possessed many attractive qualities - an exciting job, a modest but agreeable fortune and a prodigious moustache but, more than anything, young Patricia fell in love with his car, a 1934 MG J2 which he had recently purchased second-hand from the garage on the Staines Road. Sadly, war was just a few months away, and Gardiner had to answer the call of King and country before either of them could enjoy any serious motoring.

Of course, all that was 11 years ago. Petrol rationing aside, Mr. Gardiner is now a squadron leader stationed at RAF Gütersloh in West Germany. While he's been taking to the skies in the new de Havilland Vampires, Patricia has been asking herself why he should get to have all the fun. Fortunately, she's a devoted wife and her first thought is of keeping the MG roadworthy for her husband's return, lest it should seize up from lack of use.

Here she is, then, about to take it for a spin just to keep the battery topped up. And where might she be going? Only on a 15-mile circuit to her nearest pillar box, so she can send off for membership to this interesting little association she's heard about called the Vintage Sports-Car Club...

Words: Zack Stiling; picture: Stiling Collection
 

Make a comment, ask a question, give your opinion, share additional information or start a discussion by filling in the fields below.