It all began in November 1948 when my father encouraged me to seek full time employment when I announced I was leaving school at 15. In those days jobs were easier to find than they are now and so it was only a matter of a few days later that he and I traveled into the city of Melbourne and up to the top end of Elizabeth street to Currie & Richards, a Plumbing Supplies firm. Life began as an office boy and I quickly discovered that over the road was Brylaw Motors (Bryson-Lawson) at 478 Elizabeth Street. Brylaws had a large showroom, which held a number of magnificent Mark IV Jaguars.
One of my duties was sweeping the footpath outside the main entrance of Currie & Richards. I was lucky that the boss didn’t notice that the edge of the footpath nearest the Jaguar dealer was at least twice as clean as the rest of it because I spent most of my time admiring and surveying the beautiful new cars. The Mark IV’s were driven up from the wharf and just left parked in the street for up to four hours before they were taken into the back lane to be prepared prior to registration. Nowadays the process would cause the current local city bylaws officers to have heart palpitations as they reached for their computerised ticket machines! I would see these cars again when the new owners came in to collect their pride and joy. In those days new cars were at a premium, especially Jaguars, as the works struggled to find sufficient materials and meet world export demand let alone Australian demand. However, it was then I became determined to own one of these Jaguar cars.
By June 1949 I had become interested in engineering and started an apprenticeship. One day, on my way to trade school I saw the first Mark V in the Brylaw Motors showroom. Wow! I can still see it as distinctly as if it was yesterday. It was painted in Black with Red leather interior and I fell in love again. To be honest I can’t remember a thing I learnt at school that night! But it just got better. A month later I had my first ride in Mr Kennedy’s Mark V and that experience really convinced me that I had to have one of these cars. Ron Kennedy was a friend of my fathers who owned a garage in Heidelberg and was shortly after appointed the Northern Area Dealer for Jaguar cars. The how and when I could ever afford one of these great cars was not relevant, what was important was that I had a dream and this dream just kept revolving in my mind.
Well, that dream was revolving in my mind for a long time. I had a lot of rides in Mr Kennedy’s car, but it was not until 1968 that I had any money to buy a Mark V Jaguar. It was a lot of money, but I didn’t mind shelling out the $100 for the car and that included a brand new set of four tyres. The car was not registered and hadn’t been near a roadworthy certificate for some time but I was as proud as punch as I drove it home from Ivanhoe to Greensborough, not a great distance but for me it was the fulfillment of a lifetime ambition. I still have this Mark V and I have kept it in original condition = that is to say it was a restoration project when I bought it – and it still is! The car has Tan upholstery and was originally painted Lavender Grey but had been resprayed a Dark Green by Peter Leech.
In 1972 I joined the Jaguar Car Club of Victoria. The club had one register for the “SS” model cars but no others. Keith Rattray-Wood was the president at the time and was keen to start registers for all the Jaguars models. We held a meeting of Mark V owners and the register was started and I became Victorian Secretary. I was Secretary for a terrific four years as I indulged my love of these cars with fellow enthusiasts.
In 1975 I had the opportunity to purchase a low mileage (32,000 miles), Black 1951 Mark V and I grabbed the chance. I also have this car today but it has always been registered and drive-able. The car came from the son of the original owner so still had the owner’s handbook, tools and a service manual. The car has body number 10226 and the total Mark number of V’s produced was 10,466 so it must be one of the last cars manufactured.
The story of how it was purchased is quite novel. The owner was a builder. In those days building materials were not readily available and so he took to making cement-roofing tiles after work in the back yard. This started off as a project after the war to finish his own home. At the completion of the home he told his wife that because he had made the tiles he had saved around £100. His wife said that they would save that amount and it was put away in the tin. Over a period the tile making business grew and yielded quite a lot of cash, which was handed over to the Mrs and ‘put away’. Some time later the builder told his wife that it would be nice to buy a new Rover car but they were a little more than he thought they could afford. The wife went an unearthed the biscuit tin which had quite a lot of cash in it by this time. So much so in fact that the builder was able to go and order a new Rover car and on the way home went into the Jaguar Dealership and ordered a new Jaguar to boot! There was no such thing as buying off the showroom floor then, so the builder paid his deposit and went of home to wait. And wait for his new car he surely did, it took a whole eighteen months to arrive. Sure enough one Saturday morning he got a call from the Rover dealer that his new Rover was available to be picked up on the Monday. Within an hour or so the Jaguar Dealer also rang. So Monday he went in and picked up the Rover and drove it home, parked on the front lawn and then caught the tram back to the Jaguar dealer. When he got the Jaguar home he said to his wife “why don’t you pick one?”. It was no contest, she wanted the one with the long bonnet, and that was how the Jaguar started its journey to eventually end up in my garage. By the way, the story goes that the Rover was advertised and sold the next Saturday for enough to cover the cost of both cars.
But back to my purchase of this car, as ever all was not perfect. The interior of the car had a unique rural air. While not in use the car had been parked in a farm shed. The rear door was left ajar and some of the windows down, presumably to stop moisture damage. A small number of chickens obviously knew the quality of comfort afforded by the Jaguar and took up occasional residence. While having a liking for leather furnishings their knowledge of home maintenance left something to be desired and although the interior cleaned up to an acceptable level it was far from ideal visually and had something of a unique air to it.
My daughter’s wedding in 1992 gave me the excuse to have the car’s interior redone. I had always preferred red leather anyway and took the opportunity to refit the car in it. The car has now been with me for some time and has seen service for many family occasions and club runs. The longest run with the car has been on the 1996 Darwin to Alice Springs with the XK register. Yes, I think you could say I like the Mark V.
