Philip Flower (and YD 6854)

Page updated : 29 April 2011Home > People > Philip Flower

Philip Flower with YD 6854 and a stack of trophies. We assume that the standing figure is Lionel,
his older brother, and that the picture was taken towards the end of their trialling career, probably in 1939.
Photograph with thanks to the Forshaw Family.

In October 2010 I received an email from an antique dealer who'd purchased two silver cocktail shakers engraved with the name "P S Flower". The dealer was wondering whether I had any more information on Flower. Just checking Cowbourne and Wheelspin, and finding this page on the internet, produced a wealth of information that I thought was worth publishing here.

Philip Flower is listed 11 times in the Index to Wheelspin, which may not put him in the first rank of (mainly works) trials drivers of the 1930s, but is certainly confirmation that he was one of "the few spectacular figures in the trials game" as May comments in one 1937 reference.

Flower was paralysed from the waist down, after he fell from a tree at the age of 13, but this did not stop him learning to drive and his first trials car was one of the early six-cylinder MG F-Type Magnas. But his career really took-off when, in late 1935, he purchased the ex-J E S Jones MG J2 Midget YD 6854, for sale as a result of Jones joining the MG Works Cream Crackers team to drive the blown MG PB JB 7525. Jones had won an MCC Triple in YD 6854 in 1935 so the J2 was obviously still competitive when ownership passed to Flower although, by that time, it was already "two models old" in the MG Midget line-up.

The car was fitted with a hand throttle on the steering wheel, and a special outside brake lever that also operated the clutch, and was used competitively for the remainder of the Pre-War period. Indeed May remarks, in early 1939, that Flower was one of the few drivers not changing his car, "continuing to put his faith in the old J2 which had brought him so far and so very successfully.". Other modifications included, as May reports in Wheelspin, a new bonnet of thin gauge aluminium with canvas sides, thin gauge aluminium cycle wings, a single headlamp, and the removal of both seats and all the upholstery. Flower sat in a special invalid chair but May doesn't record where the passenger, normally his older brother Lionel, sat!

In The Sports Car (January 1938) Macdermid who, with Flower, was one of only two drivers with a clean sheet in the 1937 Gloucester, wrote: I was lucky enough to see Philip Flower tackle the hill (Breakheart, which we now know as Crooked Mustard), and I would like to pay a tribute to as clever a trials man as any that twiddles a wheel. Flower is unable to survey his hill on foot, (those were the days!) but unerringly he picked the only possible course and quietly but very surely took his car to the top : a perfectly judged climb which made all others look rather futile."

Flower did not continue trialling after the War and YD 6854 was bought, as a kit-of-parts, by Ivan Forshaw who spent several decades restoring it to the standard specification without Flower's hand controls and excessive lightening.

Competition history

Flower reputedly entered over 100 events in the 1930s but these are the ones I've been able to track-down, mostly from the obvious reference sources.

1934

NWLMC Gloucester Trial (8th December) - No.150 - Bronze Finishers Plaque - MG F-Type Magna 1271cc.

1935

SUNBAC Colmore Trial (23rd February) - No.83 - Second Class Award - MG F-Type Magna 1271cc.
Flower acquired the ex-J E S Jones 847cc MG J2 Midget YD 6854 sometime after the 1935 Barnstaple Trial, held in August (I have a photograph of Jones in YD 6854 on this event), and used this car for the remainder of the 1930s.
NWLMC Gloucester Trial (7th December) - No.116 - First Class Award.
MCC Exeter Trial (27/28th December) - No.300 - Premier + Simms Award.

1936

SUNBAC Colmore Trial (22nd February) - No.15 - No Award.
MCC Lands End Trial (10/11th April) - No.394 - Premier Award. This is the only record, in Cowbourne, of Flower entering the Lands End Trial.
MCC Edinburgh Trial (29/30th May) - No.202 - Retired. This is the only record, in Cowbourne, of Flower entering the Edinburgh Trial.
B&HMC Brighton-Beer Trial (20th/21st June) - No.61 - Premier Award.
NWLMC Gloucester Trial (5th December) - No.78 - Premier Award and President's Trophy. May records that Flower was one of only four drivers to clean Juniper.

1937

MCC Exeter Trial (1st/2nd January) - No.283 - Premier Award.
SUNBAC Colmore Trial (27th February) - No.10 - Third Class Award.
Lawrence Cup Trial (29th May) - ??
B&HMC Brighton-Beer Trial (20th June) - No.56 - Premier Award.
Mid-Surrey AC London-Barnstaple Trial (August) - ??
West Hants Club Knott Trophy Trial (date?) - ??
Bristol MC&LCC Fedden Trial (date?) - Daphne Trophy (Runner-up).
Cottingham Trophy Trial (date?) - Visitor's Cup.
NWLMC Gloucester Trial (4th December) - No.25 - Premier Award and Gloucester Cup (Winner). May records that Flower was one of only two drivers with a clean sheet after non-stop ascents of all 11 hills.

1938

SUNBAC Colmore Trial (26th February) - No.72 - Principal Award.
Mid-Surrey AC London-Barnstaple Trial (August) - ??
NWLMC Gloucester Trial (3rd December) - No.21 - Premier Award and 1100cc Class Winner.

1939

SUNBAC Colmore Trial (25th February) - No.?? - Second Class Award. This was actually a very creditable performance for an ageing car as there were very few First Class Awards.