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In February 2007, Paul Skilleter and Tony Bailey from this site were privileged to meet Frank Swan from Farnham.
Frank had worked at Leslie Hawthorn's Tourist Trophy Garage in East Street, Farnham from 1950 to 1954 and offered us the chance
to talk to him about his memories of that time. His son had passed him a print out of our Mike Hawthorn Tribute site back in November 2006
and he was really keen to add his recollections to the information we already had.
Frank also has an extensive collection of original photographs and
a large scrap album, some of which we show here.
Frank Swan was born in 1930 in the village of Rowledge (where, a few years later, Mike and Leslie would also live), some three miles from Farnham.
He left school in 1944, then on 1st January 1945, Frank started work as an apprentice at Heath Bros in Frensham. They specialised in motorcycles,
repairing and maintaining them for the Army Auxiliary Works. In 1948, he commenced his National Service for the next two years.
After serving his country, now aged 20, Frank started looking for a job. He went to see Leslie Hawthorn at the Tourist Trophy Garage
in East Street, Farnham where he was immediately taken on as a fitter. Frank knew nothing of Mike who at that time was still at college. He had seen him
riding his Matchless motorcycle - Mike and Leslie had a house in Rowledge where Frank also lived and later Mike came to the garage using his bike
when he needed something or had business there - although Frank says that Mike never worked on the cars at the garage.
Frank worked in the hop kiln workshop at the right of the garage frontage - at that time he had a clear view of the Farnham bypass from the large window
of his workshop (just visible in photo below) until later building work obscured this. A range of cars came his way including many Jaguar Mk VIIs and their camshafts. He remembers
that these were large and heavy cars but reliable and liked by their owners.
Mike's first car had been a Fiat 500 that he used to get from home in Rowledge to the garage - 'drove it like a scalded cat!' Frank says.
Mike even gave him small parts from it, such as the dipstick, and asked him to clean and chrome plate them.
Once done, back on the car they went!
Leslie Hawthorn was a very nice man to work for, Frank says - but being a Yorkshireman, he had a hot temper and
gave out a few rollickings during Frank's time at the garage.
1952 saw a visit from a film crew to make the documentary 'Tuning for Speed' - this was apparently shown in cinemas at that time. [We've tried
to locate this without much luck - it seems to be a longer version of the 90 secs short film that takes a trip round the garage and there are stills from
left and above here]. Frank says he appears in the longer version working at a lathe and is keen to see it again! If anyone has a copy or knows of its
whereabouts, please contact us.
We showed Frank the shorter 1952 film (several times by request!) and it certainly brought back a few memories of that day for him!
The mechanic in the pics with Mike is Hughie Sewell.
Other visitors to the garage while Frank was there included Duncan Hamilton and Stirling Moss - the latter accompanied by a girl
he was courting but her name escapes Frank's memory.
Frank became a relative to mechanic Brit Pearce when the latter married his cousin.
Frank recalls that both father and son enjoyed their drink. Lunchtime would see them at the Duke of Cambridge a few doors away
from the garage, sat at a table with a pint each and their meals. The pub was run then by Charlie and Marjorie Bishop - once Mike had started racing
they took Frank and a couple of others to Silverstone to watch him race. This would be one of the few outings that came Frank's way as being
'just a fitter' didn't really qualify him for providing racing support at meetings. Although, as he tells us, he did get plenty of work sorting
parts for Mike's own cars, both personal and racing.
With Mike racing after Leslie had obtained the two Riley's, Frank was given the task of working on them to get them ready for racing.
One job was to remove the cylinder heads and improve the gas flow with much grinding and polishing of the valve stems and heads. He
recalls that, after working on the heads each evening, Leslie made him turn the engine on its side and fill up the head with paraffin.
The next morning, if there were any leaks, it was a reprimand and back to the grinding wheel again....
He also removed a lot of the existing bodywork, replacing panels and fabricating aluminium ones for lightness.
Mike was fun to work with and, when he needed to get into town from the garage, he would often borrow Frank's BSA 250 Gold Star bike.
On the right, one of Frank's photos of Mike's Riley Sprite resting at the garage after its win in the Dundrod Handicap. The car is now owned
(and used) by Tim Ely who bought it directly from the Hawthorn family after Mike's death.
After they acquired their first Cooper-Bristol, the Hawthorn's needed something to move it around in so Leslie purchased an
old Bedford OWB wartime coach and converted it to carry the race car with the help of staff including Frank. All the seats
were taken out and doors added at the back to allow the Cooper-Bristol in and out. Leslie also boarded up the windows
with hardboard and painted the whole body dark green.
[You can read all about this and the legendary 'Colmans Mustard' advert on our Transporter page devoted to it.]
The Norton motorcycle shown belonged to Julian Crossley who raced it and became a firm friend of Mike's. Mike drove to Haslemere for the inquest
with Julian after his father was killed in 1954. Unfortunately, Julian himself was killed shortly afterwards in an accident.
Mike Hawthorn and Brit Pearce standing for the camera with a single seater. Frank recalls that the car was owned by
John Cooper and that, as far as he know, Mike didn't actually drive it. He says the engine is a Triumph (confirmed by others)
but so far, we don't know exactly what the car is! It has some characteristics of a Cooper of that time but others that are not.
Anyone who can help please contact us.
Mike, possibly at Goodwood, in his Riley Imp
Leslie Hawthorn (left) at Goodwood with the Rileys. With Leslie is Julian Crossley who owned the bike shown above
Mike's Riley Sprite seen resting at the Tourist Trophy Garage with its winners spoils after the Dundrod Handicap where he finished 1st
Frank recounts that although he had left the garage back in 1954, he still kept tabs on Mike. He married in 1954 and his
brother-in-law had obtained him a job at the REME Tank Shop in Aldershot. A few years later, someone there went home one lunch time and when they came back,
announced 'Your old mate has caught his lot!'. Frank asked him what he was on about - 'Hawthorn - he got killed this morning.'
"Just like that!", Frank told us, "no warning and he didn't try to break it gently. I just cried my eyes out."
Frank attended Mike's funeral along with many other people - one of the photographs he has is below.
Frank believes that Mike's death arose through the World Champion showing off while meeting up with Rob Walker
in his 'kraut' Mercedes. He knew that Mike had a fatal kidney disease and would not live for many years. In Frank's papers
is also a copy of a newspaper article that surmises 'Was Mike Shot?' after several incidents in the area where he crashed. See the links below for
this and other related pages on this site.
He also is very disappointed at the lack of Memorials to Mike in Farnham - more should have been done to
perpetuate Mike's memory in the town. Various proposals have been put forward over the years but
nothing has ever materialised.
A few years ago, Frank read this editorial article in a local paper with some interest, agreeing with much but NOT the first paragraph:
Batting for a Farnham Champion
A man from Essex, it seems, was the only one to remember that Friday January 28 was the day that Mike Hawthorn was buried in Farnham Cemetery.
He drove all that way to place flowers on his grave, a poignant gesture to a life-long idol.
The fact that nobody in Farnham was so moved does not come as a surprise.
The town's big-wigs, anyway, have always had ambivalent feelings towards the champ.
It may be that he did not leap into uniform to do his National Service, but probably rightly felt he was doing something equally important - and life risking - for his nation at the time.
Or, as I have suggested before in this column, it may be that motor-racing was the wrong kind of sport to set Farnham's heart aflame.
I mean, its not cricket, is it?
One thing I am sure of is that the apparent indifference, which saw us take several decades to name a cul-de- sac after him had nothing to do with his drinking habits.
I have always thought the town's decision makers like a drop or two - as the Venison Dinner alone will testify - Hawthorn drank....well.... like a fish, as a great many others of his generation did. He even drank after driving, a pastime that is becoming increasingly frowned upon these days as the potential harm it does creeps into the collective communal psyche.
In his memoirs, Champion Year, the Farnham Flyer unashamedly told of his journey home from Goodwood on race days.
"....we always have a set run home: a drink at the Bricklayers in Midhurst and then one or two at the Spread Eagle and then down the Cole Hole for a few."
Even the prestigious Daily Telegraph, whose more elderly readers are equally suspected of enjoying the odd dram, seemed slightly taken aback last week.
"What would the authorities do to Hawthorn if he were alive today?" columnist Robert Porter asked.
One thing is sure: they wouldn't put up a memorial to him.
This rant somewhat incensed Frank, who reached for his pen to contact the Editor - and duly found himself in print!
Mike and his dad
The man from Essex was not the only person to remember Mike Hawthorn in January. I go to the cemetery, regularly, to pay my respects to him, also to his father, Leslie, who lies next to him.
A.F.Swan,
Ex-fitter Tourist Trophy Garage 1950-54,
Farnham.
Shown below are a few pages from Frank's treasured album. It contains newspaper articles spanning Mike's entire career, some
quite rare and of interest to any fan.
Here are some pages on our site that are related to the above article:
The Tourist Trophy Garage
The Tourist Trophy Garage Transporter
Mike's Death
Mike's Funeral
Was Mike Shot?
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