Smith, William 'Bill'

[Leigh Trevail]

William ‘Bill’ Thomas Smith (1934 - 1955)

Bill Smith’s life was tragically short, but it must be said; an eventful one, Although a Scot by birth he actually lived in Lincoln, but his parents owned a farm in Bradfield St. George near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Even before he was old enough to drive on the road; Bill joined the Eastern Counties Motor Club, and would compete in off road events. Other club members took the teenager to their hearts; and at seventeen he drove a Jowett Jupiter in the 2nd Felixstowe Rally; with Dick Rayner acting as navigator. Circuit racing followed with Bill entering the Jowett at Snetterton, during the season he posted good results including a first.

From the outset his parents were reluctant to let him race, but together they agreed to him doing two seasons. He acquired a rather quick Jaguar XK 120 from fellow club member John Sarginson; whilst still only eighteen this car gave him two firsts at Snetterton. Bury St. Edmunds business man Eric Ridley, who was himself a competent rally driver purchased an M.G. engined Tojeiro, and allowed Bill to race it. Better things were to come, in March 1955 Bill noticed an advert in Autosport for a Jaguar C Type, it was offered by Ecurie Ecosse and was the winning car from the 1953 24 Hour Le Mans race. It was left to Bill’s father John; to negotiate with the teams owner; fellow Scotsman David Murray. With a deal done the victorious car headed south. It’s first outing with Bill driving was a test session at Snetterton, he had not had chance to paint it so it stayed in the colours of the Scottish team, by its next event in May it had been changed to bright red with a black stripe.

This was to be a road race Dundrod near Belfast, the International Ulster Trophy. The organisers had a handicap system worked out by estimated engine performance; this was to mean that Bill was the second from last leaving the start line, with only Belfast’s Desmond Titterington D-Type Jaguar behind him. To everyone’s surprise the newcomer in the red Jaguar was the first over the line, and he was made Ulster Champion.

The major teams were now interested in Bill, a drive with H.W.M. followed and approaches were made by the works teams of both Jaguar and Aston Martin. But in the end it was David Murray’s Ecurie Ecosse that Bill signed for, however a proviso was included that should the Jaguar works team require his services that he would be released to drive for them. In August he had a couple of races in the Scottish D Type Jaguar for the team, finishing third in each, as well as this he also raced his own red C Type.

In September Bill was back at Dundrod for the R.A.C. Tourist Trophy, but; by a quirk of fate not with Ecurie Ecosse; but with Connaught. Ken McAlpine had decided to retire from driving himself; and his drive was offered to Bill, as David Murray had not entered the Scottish team for the race Bill accepted. Connaught had also discussed the possibility of him driving a Grand Prix car for them the for following season.

However this was not to be, at the T.T. the race was started with the larger engined cars at the front, and the smallest at the back. The Connaught with its 1500cc motor started well back in the field, but by the second lap Bill was in a gaggle of cars about half way up the running order. Together they caught up an inexperienced driver in a Mercedes 300 SL; which because of its engine size had started near the front. Bill was the third car in this bunch, as the first one; Mayers in a Cooper tried to overtake the 300SL, he had to brake hard to miss it, skidded and crashed into a concrete gatepost. Mayers was killed instantly, with his car bursting into flames. Somehow the following Porsche missed the wreckage but crashed doing so, Bill could do nothing to avoid the burning Cooper as it came across in front of him. Four more cars became entangled in the accident. Bill Smith had been thrown from his Connaught, unconscious he was taken to hospital were he died, he was three weeks away from his twenty first birthday.

Within a month of the Dundrod accident Connaught had won their first Grand Prix, the follow year Ecurie Ecosse was again victorious at Le Man, with Bill’s replacement taking the role of co-driver.

To ensure that Bill’s life would never be forgotten Peter Sainty has written a book on his racing career titled “An Artist at the Game”. This is available from www.lulu.com either as a download or a mail order book.

[John Turner]

Well done, Leigh. Although I was aware of the Dundrod accident, Bills name had not registered with me. Tragic loss of one so young; thank you for enlightening us.

[ensign14]

For the tragic sake of completeness Richard Mainwaring was killed later in the same race.

Sad to think that Bill Smith could have started as a Grand Prix contemporary of Louis Chiron and finished as a contemporary of Riccardo Patrese...