EXTRACT FROM “20-Ghost Club, the First 70 years 1949-2019”

1932 Phantom II Continental (4MS) Hooper Sports Saloon owned by Ernest van Arendonk

4MS, the 66th out of 281 Phantom II Continentals made by the Company, was sold to Rootes Ltd of Piccadilly for its customer, Major Egbert Cadbury, DSC, DFC, who lived in Bristol. ‘Bertie’, as he was known, was the youngest son of George Cadbury’s second marriage. Despite being a Quaker and opposed to war, on the outbreak of WW1 in 1914, aged 21 he left Cambridge University and volunteered for service in the Royal Navy. He was commissioned in May 1915 and joined the Royal Naval Air Service, seeing action flying various biplane aircraft. Bertie Cadbury was decorated twice (DSC and DFC) during the war for his daring exploits when he was involved in bringing down two German Zeppelin airships that attacked Britain. His account of the first downing in November 1916 is worth repeating:

I saw the Zeppelin approaching the coast and immediately chased after it. It was flying about 5,000 feet when I first saw it and it immediately climbed to 8,000 feet. I went after it. I approached from the stern about 3,000 feet below and fired four drums of explosive ammunition in to its stern, which immediately started to light. At the same time one of the other pilots was flying over the Zeppelin and to his horror he saw a man in the machine-gun pit run to the other side and leap overboard. Having seen the Zeppelin circle down to the sea in a blazing mass – a most horrible sight – I went back to Yarmouth. I could not say I felt very elated or pleased at this; somehow I was overawed at the spectacle of this Zeppelin and all the people aboard going down into the sea.

The Cadbury name is of course famous for its chocolate and the company was founded in 1824 by John Cadbury. In 1922 Egbert Cadbury became managing director of Cadbury Brothers Ltd. During WW2 Egbert served as Air Commodore for the City of Bristol Squadron and the Cadbury family also turned over parts of the Bournville factory to war work. Egbert Cadbury was a local magistrate and a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Gloucester. In 1957, he was knighted for his public services. Sir Egbert Cadbury retired as Vice-Chairman of Cadburys in 1962.

As was so often the case with Rolls-Royces in the 1960s, the car went to America and the next known owner of 4MS (from 1963) was Larry Peterson, the founder of the Peterson Seed Company in Iowa. The car was acquired in 1971 by Dr GJ Schuetz, who sold the car in 1977 to Duane Cultra of Onarga, Illinois. Cultra owned the car for more than 30 years and, during this time, participated in many RROC events. After a stay of 45 years in the US, 4MS returned to Britain, where Ernest van Arendonk acquired the car and arranged a complete restoration. 4MS carries its original registration number GX-8578.

END OF EXTRACT