Bill Boddy

William "Bill" Boddy, MBE (22 February 1913 – 7 July 2011)^[1] was a British journalist who was the editor of Motor Sport from 1936 to 1991. After 1991 he still contributed regularly to Motor Sport magazine, continuing a career that lasted eighty-one years. He also co-founded the Vintage Sports Car Club, and founded the Brooklands Society in 1967 among numerous contributions to the emerging vintage car scene. At his death he was considered the longest-serving journalist in the UK.^[2]

Early years and racing career

Boddy was born in Wandsworth, London in 1913, to a Welsh mother and an English father who would shortly be killed in World War I.^[3] He became interested in cars from an early age and began to build up an encyclopaedic knowledge of motoring, leaving school in 1924 and immersing himself in automotive publications and the Brooklands racing scene.

In tandem with his journalistic work, Boddy drove the original HRG 1,497cc sports car at the Lewes Speed Trials on 4 September 1937 with a best time of 27.4 sec, finishing third in the novices class.^[4] Boddy entered his Lancia at the Prescott opening rally on 10 April 1938; his 1924 Aston Martin being commended by the judges in the Best Kept Car Competition.^[5] He also entered the Lancia 1,352cc at the first Prescott speed hillclimb on 15 May 1938.^[6] Boddy was riding as passenger when Sydney Allard won the last speed event to be held in England prior to World War Two. Having set the fastest time at the Horndean Speed Trials, their car overturned past the finish line and both occupants were thrown clear and uninjured.^[7]

Journalism

Boddy's first published article, in Motor Sport in 1930,^[8] was on the history of the Brooklands track, where he had first gone in 1927. He worked with Brooklands Track & Air for two and half years from 1931, and was appointed editor of the struggling Motor Sport in 1936. He wrote under the initials W.B., as company policy insisted that full names could not be used as bylines, though his identity was common knowledge.

Throughout World War II he was employed by the Ministry of Aircraft Production at Farnborough working on Air Publications, but he kept Motor Sport going in his spare time for the duration. After the war, he recruited Denis Jenkinson for Motor Sport to provide race reports. In February 1946 Motor Sport published a four-page "Obituary" for the Brooklands circuit, with the headline: "Built at his own expense for the nation's good, by the late Mr. H. F. Locke King - 1906. Betrayed by bureaucracy and declared an industrial area - 1946." ^[9]

A Brooklands expert, he wrote the authoritative histories of the track and in 1967 founded the Brooklands Society, later the Brooklands Trust Members, to preserve the remains of the track and its facilities. He also made a reputation for road tests that pulled no punches, often incurring the wrath of manufacturers and advertisers. He is considered a driving force behind the creation of the vintage car movement, each edition of Motor Sport providing unique coverage of vintage cars and events.^[10] He was a veteran of 39 London to Brighton Runs. ^[11]

His editorship was also notable for his campaigns on motoring issues, such as against the 70mph speed limit.^[12]

Boddy retired as editor in 1991, though he continued to contribute to the magazine until his death in Powys, Wales in 2011, having been awarded an MBE in 1997.^[13] He was survived by three daughters and had lived alone after the 1998 death of his wife Winifred Holbrook, whom he had married in 1948.

Books

In addition to his prolific magazine work, William Boddy wrote numerous books including:

• The story of Brooklands, 1948.
• The world's land speed record, 1951.
• — (1951). Continental Sports Cars. London: G.T. Foulis. 
• The history of Brooklands motor course, 1957.
• The Bugatti story, 1960.
• Montlhéry: The Story of the Paris Autodrome, 1961.
• The sports car pocketbook, 1961.
• The vintage years of the Morgan three-wheeler, 1971.
• The history of motor racing, 1977.
• Volkswagen Beetle, 1982.
• My thirty years of motoring for Motor Sport, 1982.
• Mercedes Benz 300 S.L., 1983.
• Volkswagen Beetle Type 1 and the New Generation, 1999.
• Brookland's Complete Motor Racing, 2002.
• Brooklands giants, 2006.

References

External links

• from the oracle: William Boddy. Philip Llewellin The Independent 6 August 1994
• A unique Boddy of work, Gordon Cruickshank The Telegraph, 2 June 2007