This twice married 91-year old Georgetown, Washington, D.C. socialite and journalist was born in Dusseldorf and died as a result of “strangulation and blunt force injuries” in her own bathroom in August 2011. (more…)
Tag: 1920
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Viola Herms Drath (1920 – 2011)
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BT phone home
The future for red telephone boxes
The red telephone box is something that tourists often cite as being symbolic of Britain. Just like the red London bus and the red pillar box, though, these Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed kiosks are sadly disappearing from our streets.
Decaying red telephone boxes are an increasingly common sight throughout Britain 
Traditional red “K6” model telephone boxes being removed from Warwick town centre Killed by the mobile phone revolution, British Telecom successfully lobbied to remove public telephones as usage has declined dramatically. The company state that calls from payphones have fallen by more than 80% in the last five years and that around 60% of the boxes cost more to maintain than they generate in revenue.
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Dr Alexander Moulton CBE (1920 – 2012)
This genius of British design was told by leading bicycle manufacturer Raleigh that his lightweight, small-wheeled bicycle wouldn’t sell in the early 1960s. He proved them utterly wrong and his work with Sir Alexander Issigonis on the Austin Mini created a car that will be remembered forever. This unmarried and utterly eccentric engineer was also told by the Duke of Edinburgh “that he might end up under a glass case himself” and went as far as to swap his Rolls-Royce for a chauffeur driven Mini to beat ever escalating fuel costs. -
Ecstasy and Babycham
A marine residence with a history tied to the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy, the Special Operations Executive and Babycham
The House on the Shore on Thorns Beach at Beaulieu in Hampshire is a home that wouldn’t look out of place in the Hamptons or Rhode Island. Dramatically situated next to the Solent waters to the north of the Isle of Wight, this suitably named building wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1980s BBC series Howards’ Way. It could. Indeed, have been an ideal home for Gerald and Polly Urquhart. (more…)
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Redefining Rachman
A different side to Peter Rachman is revealed
Whenever the name Rachman is mentioned, the first things that come to mind are greed, extortion and intimidation. The word is so engrained in such that “Rachmanism” now features in the dictionary, defined as:
“The exploitation of tenants of slum properties by unscrupulous landlords.”
“Notorious slum landlord” Peter Rachman (1920 – 1962) Perec “Peter” Rachman (1920 – 1962) was born in Poland and the son of a Jewish dentist. He is best known for having built up a property empire of over 100 mansion blocks in London’s Westbourne Grove and Notting Hill areas in the 1950s where he evicted longstanding sitting tenants and replaced them with prostitutes and immigrants from the West Indies. Due to the relaxation of rent controls by the Conservative government in 1957 and as no other landlord was prepared to take them, he was able to charge these unfortunates whatever he wished.
Rachman came to public attention after the Labour MP for Paddington North, Ben Parkin (1906 – 1969), became vocal about the poor housing conditions of his tenants. Parkin coined the phrase “Rachnamism” in his quest to put a stop to the activities of “rent racketeers” and highlighted him as someone who used violence to maintain control of “his manor.” The MP even went as far as to suggest that Peter Rachman’s death was merely a ploy to distract from his activities and the result was to leave the public engrained with a belief that this landlord was a “manipulative, grasping Jew” who symbolised the moral decay of Great Britain.
Ben Parkin MP (1906 – 1969) on a CND march A Radio 4 programme this week, however, highlighted an entirely different side to Rachman. In The Real Rachman – Lord of the Slums, a “barrister turned investigative reporter” named Joshua Levine suggested that those who believe Peter Rachman just to be a sordid intimidator fail to see the true persona of the man.
Levine’s witnesses, who number former tenants and Rachman’s biographer Shirley Green, do describe him as a “chancer” who was prepared to use the system to make money, but they also portray another side of this supposed “figure of evil’s” character.
Nicholas van Hoogstraten (born 1945) One immigrant tenant stated: “He was the only one who ever did anything for us” whilst others added that Rachman was “well-liked” and “too soft to be a landlord.” He was a “benefactor” and “jolly” commented others who’d rented from him and a truly notorious modern-day landlord, Nicholas van Hoogstraten, failed to see the opportunist in Rachman at all: “It’s laughable. He had no wealth. It’s an invented moral [mission].” Rachman, equally, was defined as a man “affected” by his imprisonment in a Soviet labour camp in the Second World War by his former lover Mandy Rice-Davis and as someone who suffered true sorrow over the deaths of his family there.
Levine’s examination recounts how Rachman, who drove a navy blue Rolls-Royce with a white interior, was built into a symbol of corruption and moral decay. Rachman, like so many other mythical scapegoats, it turns out only died with only one conviction: parking without lights. The truth, indeed, is often stranger than fiction.
Listen to BBC Radio 4’s The Real Rachman – Lord of the Slums at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ng4h3
Follow Joshua Levine on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/Joshua_Levine
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First Among (Not So) Equals
The latest sale of 32a Ovington Square
I first visited 32a Ovington Square in September 2009. At the time, this “hidden house” was the home of Lord Carrington and it had just come on the market at a price, if I recall correctly, of circa £3,000,000.
The newly redeveloped Carrington House, 32a Ovington Square, London, SW3 1LR 
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Carrington KG, GCMG, CH, MC, PC, DL (born 6th June 1919) with his wife Lady Carrington (1920 – 2009) and their dog Edward A friend was looking for somewhere to buy in London and I’d somehow come across the aforementioned property in a magazine. A detached house in Knightsbridge at this price seemed like a bargain and as he was keen to take a look and I lived round the corner, we arranged to see it together.
During this period, I had unfortunately made the mistake of making the acquaintance of a former ambassador’s wife who thought herself rather grand. Said woman somehow found out about my friend going to what Americans might term an “open house” at 32a Ovington Square and somehow muscled in. This individual happened to be selling her own home nearby and I reckon she, like my friend, thought she’d be onto a bargain. She’d previously unsuccessfully tried to persuade my friend to buy her individually styled, Ralph Lauren wallpapered home but as it actually rattled every time an underground train went underneath and as it was far from a bargain, he’d sensibly declined.
We arrived at the 2,240 square foot 32a Ovington Square to be told by a rather unhelpful estate agent that we’d have to just wander round by ourselves and that there was no brochure or floor plan. As a merry throng trailed through the house, Lord Carrington stood in the garden looking bemused and his secretary fussed around him. The pair plainly weren’t comfortable with all the interlopers and all in all, who could blame them.
The ex-ambassador’s wife, whose carelessness Rupert Everett most amusingly made reference to in his recent memoirs, spent the entire visit whingeing about the house being dark and stinking of damp. I had to agree with her as the neighbouring buildings towered over it and there was mould on the walls. My friend simply said: “It needs a fortune spending on it.” We left and later I heard that it sold for well above the asking price. The wife of the ex-ambassador thankfully departed from our lives soon after.
A site plan shows how hidden away 32a Ovington Square truly is – ideal for a government minister or indeed a wayward celebrity About a year and a half later, I saw 32a Ovington Square for sale with planning permission to construct a far larger residence with a basement and sub-basement pool complex. The price was in the order of £14,000,000. I thought that somewhat ludicrous but now that the very same property is on the market at a price of £23,00,000, it seems that the world has just gone mad.
The brochure for the new residence, which has been renamed, Carrington House, reveals a three-storey low-built freehold building with 5,300 square foot of accommodation. Though 32a Ovington Square has been more than doubled in size by a developer named London City Developments, the sub-basement leisure complex has not been constructed. Could this have been because of planning problems or simply because such construction wasn’t deemed to add value?
In August 2002, Lord Carrington, whom The Mirror described as being “doddery” in a Scurra diary piece, was said to have objected to a bar named Townhouse behind his former home being given a 1am licence. That bar has since closed but as seven of the residents of Ovington Square and Beauchamp Place also took a dislike to the prospect of subterranean developments at his former home, only proposals for a single basement level were included in the January 2010 plans submitted by a Mr & Mrs R. Garner.
Jeffrey Archer’s 1984 novel “First Among Equals” (published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 0-340-35266-3) Aside from controversy with residents and planning officials, this “heavily overlooked,” “dark” house gets a brief credit in Jeffrey Archer’s 1984 novel, First Among Equals:
“Charles would not have normally accepted the invitation. Lately he found cocktail parties to consist of nothing but silly little bits of food, never being able to get the right drink and rarely enjoying the trivial conversation. But when he glanced on his mantelpiece and saw an ‘At Home’ from Lady Carrington he felt it might be an amusing break from the routine he had fallen into since Fiona left. He was keen to discover more about the rumoured squabbles in Cabinet over expenditure cuts. He checked his tie in the mirror, removed an umbrella from the hat stand and left Eaton Square for Ovington Square… He arrived at Lord Carrington’s front door a little after six forty-five. A maid answered his knock, and he walked straight through to a drawing room that could have held fifty guests and very nearly did. He even managed to be served with the right blend of whiskey before joining his colleagues from both the Upper and Lower Houses.”
Turning to the real Lord Carrington, here is a man who has led a remarkable life. He served as Foreign Secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet between 1979 and 1982 and as Secretary General of NATO from 1984 to 1988. The last surviving member of the Cabinets of both Harold Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home was British High Commissioner in Australia between 1956 and 1959 and also chaired the 1979 Lancaster House conference that brought Zimbabwe’s revolutionary war to an end. In 1991, Carrington presided over diplomatic talks in the former Yugoslavia and commented:
“When I first talked to Presidents Milošević and Tudjman, it was quite clear that both of them had a solution which was mutually satisfactory – which was that they were going to carve up Bosnia between them.”
Lord Carrington at his desk in 32a Ovington Square, Knightsbridge 
The Manor House, Bledlow, Buckinghamshire, HP27 9PB is the country home of Lord Carrington Milošević was found dead in his cell in 2006 but it is quite possible that Lord Carrington’s name will be mentioned in the trial of Goran Hadzic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia that has just commenced at The Hague. It is amazing to think that matters involving this 93-year old politician are still current but Carrington’s stamina is shown in his roles as the longest serving member of the House of Lords and the second longest serving member of the Privy Council after HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.
Aside from politics, there is much on the internet, a considerable amount of it written by wildcards and fantasists whose number includes David Icke, about Carrington’s involvement with Henry Kissinger, the Illuminati, the Bilderberg Group and the Committee of 300. The consensus of these conspiracy theorists generally borders on the ludicrous, but it is without doubt that Lord Carrington had and continues to have influence in many high places. He was chairman of Christie’s International PLC from 1988 to 1993 and has held directorships on the boards of companies that have included Barclays Banks PLC, Hambros PLC, Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Amalgamated Metal Corporation PLC, British Metal Corpoation PLC, Rio Tinto PLC, Kissinger Associates Inc. and Hollinger Inc.
The main entrance to Carrington House 
The main reception room of the house is decorated in a contemporary style and a far cry from the traditional decoration favoured by Lord and Lady Carrington 
An essential feature in any house priced over £10 million is a media room 
Carrington House now boasts a bar that any dignitary would envy 
The newly added basement level features an entertaining hall, dining room, bar, gym, media room and two bedroom suites 
The staircase is now lit by a glazed cupola 
The master bedroom 
The master bathroom 
Another bedroom, located at basement level, is decorated with a Scottish theme and has access to a shared courtyard 
The other suite that shares the courtyard is decorated with an “Out of Africa” theme complete with an image of a zebra and matching linen and upholstery 
Would the purchaser of a £23,000,000 home truly want an AstroTurf lawn? Following on from this rather over the top redevelopment, a new chapter has certainly begun at 32a Ovington Square. Whether it is bought by a popstar or a Russian oligarch, they’ll definitely not be anywhere nearly as equal to Lord Carrington in terms of their league of influence.
Carrington House, 32a Ovington Square, London, SW3 1LR is for sale through Knight Frank. For further information contact Nick Vestey on +44 (0) 20 7591 8600. Full details of the house can be viewed at: http://search.knightfrank.com/sla100211
For more details about the Carrington family’s Carrington Estates Ltd., go to: http://www.carington.co.uk/
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Going under the Kosh
The sale of a $25 million mansion modeled on Marie Antoinette’s favourite retreat that has connections to Levi Strauss & Co., Yehudi Menuhin, the Zodiac Killer and a controversial dot-com tycoon
Modeled on the Petit Trianon, a small château in the grounds of Versailles that was favoured by Louis XVI’s wife Marie Antoinette, the Koshland Mansion at 3800 Washington Street in Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California was built between 1902 and 1904 for a pioneer wool, hide and fur merchant named Marcus S. Koshland and his wife, Corrine.
The Washington Street elevation of the former Koshland Mansion at 3800 Washington Street, San Francisco, California, CA 94118 
An aerial view of the 18,000 square foot property and the 2,600 square foot guest accommodation 
The inspiration for the Koshland Mansion: The Petit Trianon, Château de Versailles, Place d’Armes – 78000 Versailles, France The Koshlands, whose son Daniel (1920 – 2007) was to become a president of Levi Strauss & Co., commissioned an architect named Frank S. Van Tree to design a replica of the Petit Trianon after having admired it whilst on holiday in France. The front of the building, facing onto Washington Street, is considered such a faithful representation of the neoclassical building the Koshlands copied and as a result the house is now designated a San Francisco Designated Landmark.
Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. Some 20,000 square foot in size and set on a 2/3rd acre plot, the completion of this sandstone faced “single family residence” was celebrated by the Koshland family with a Marie Antoinette themed ball in 1904. The invitations to this legendary event were purchased and printed in Paris and hand delivered to the guests.
The Koshland Mansion survived San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake with only a little damage to the front elevation The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, just two years after they’d completed the building, somewhat interrupted the Koshlands hectic party schedule at 3800 Washington Street. Though the disaster caused the front columns and roof balustrade to collapse, the couple generously opened the otherwise undamaged property to some 60 to 80 displaced family and friends. With no mains water, the guests had to fetch water from Fort Mason but they were no doubt happy to have had somewhere to take refuge.
During subsequent renovations, as well as restoring the façade, a 5-car garage was added in 1909 and a greenhouse and extension in 1912. In the ensuing years, until her death in 1953, Corrine Koshland, better known as Cora, opened up 3800 Washington Street as a venue for concerts. A founder of the San Francisco Symphony Association and one of the first directors of the San Francisco Opera Company, Koshland invited music critics to review the performances and gave both Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern their musical debuts at the house as child prodigies. Amongst the other big names to play in the masnion were Igor Stravinsky, Jascha Heifitz and Leonard Bernstein.
Sir Yehudi Menuhin KBE (1916 – 1999) pictured in his youth In 1953, the Koshland Mansion was sold for $100,000 by the estate of Cora Koshland. The purchaser was Walter E. Buck (1884 – 1966), president of the American Distilling Company. Buck and his wife Emily, who were well known for “Gatsby-esque parties” at their 1,300 acre estate, Woodside, redecorated 3800 Washington Street by “painting the mahogany library white, removing the dark green, gold-tooled leather from the dining room and developing small card rooms in the basement.” It seems likely that the era of parties at 3800 Washington Street continued during their occupancy.
On 11th October 1969, a murder occurred on the block where 3800 Washington Street stands when the Zodiac Killer, a to this day unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the 1960s and 1970s, shot and killed a cab driver named Paul Stine. Stine had collected his passenger one block west of Union Square and had, as requested, driven him to the intersection of Washington and Maple Streets in Presidio Heights. Once there, the cab driver was shot once in the head with a 9mm before the killer, observed by three teenagers across the street, took his wallet and car keys. The Zodiac Killer tore off a section of Stine’s bloodstained shirt, wiped the cab clean and walked off into the night before the police could arrive.
A sketch of the Zodiac Killer Subsequently, on the 14th October 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle were mailed a swatch of Stine’s shirt to prove he was the killer and then on 9th November 1969, a 7-page letter followed. Excerpts from it were published from it in the newspaper on 12th November which revealed that a police officer, Don Fouke, who had responded to the teenager’s call, had actually encountered the killer for 5 to 10 seconds on a stairway of a house close to the murder scene. Fouke had been told to look for a black suspect and on seeing a white man going into the yard of a house, had discounted the individual and drove on. The Zodiac Killer, in his letter, detailed the encounter but claimed that two policemen had actually spoken with him 3-minutes after he’d shot Stine.
In 1975, a neighbour, Paul Renne purchased 3800 Washington Street for $675,000, supposedly to prevent it being acquired by property developers, but having been used as the 1982 San Francisco Decorator Showcase house, it was placed on the market and sold to a gallery owner named Heidi Betz and her business partner, an art collector named Charles Pankow. They paid $1.5 million for the house but failed in their bid to turn it into an art gallery due to objections from neighbouring residents.
Halsey Minor In the two decades that followed 3800 Washington Street was sold several more times but finally it’s glory days looked set to return in 2007 when it was purchased by an “internet titan” named Halsey Minor and his second wife, Shannon. Having paid approximately $22 million for what essentially was going to be a very expensive renovation project, Minor supposedly assigned a further $15 million towards renovations and hired Michelle Obama’s favourite designer, Michael S. Smith, to oversee the project.
Minor founded CNET, a tech media website that published news, articles, blogs and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics, in 1992 after leaving Merrill Lynch and built it into one of the first internet companies to achieve profitability. CNET was sold for $1.8 billion in 2008 and is now CBS Interactive. Another of the companies he co-founded in 2000, salesforce.com, was “one of the most successful companies of the decade” and achieved a market capitalisation of in excess of $15 billion.
Having made a small fortune from his dot-com success, Minor diversified into investments that brought with them a lifestyle that would later be described as “a multi-millionaire who lived life as a billionaire.” In 2007, he began construction of a hotel in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia and announced this would be part of a series he’d open as part of the Minor Family Hotel group he planned. The hotel has never been completed.
Carter’s Grove, 8797 Pocahontas Trail, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, VA 23187: considered to be one of America’s finest and most historic residences. It was bought by Halsey Minor in 2007 and has fallen into significant decline in the years since. 
The 1983 Group of Seven (G7) meeting at Carter’s Grove. Pictured outside the house are: Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister, Canada; François Mitterrand, President, France; Helmut Kohl, Chancellor, West Germany; Amintore Fanfani, Prime Minister, Italy; Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister, Japan; Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister, United Kingdom; Ronald Reagan, President, United States of America and Gaston Thorn, President, European Commission In the same year, he also bought the Koshland Mansion and purchased 400 acres of land and a residence on the James River, the Carter’s Grove Plantation, for $15.3 million. Here, he planned a centre for thoroughbred horse breeding and at around the same time he attempted to buy both the Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, Florida and the Pimlico Track in Baltimore. Both bids failed.
Minor’s investments were not just limited to property and the equine sector. In 2006, he placed a $3 million deposit on a $59 million Gulfstream G650 and at Sotheby’s in 2008, he was the winning bidder on a painting by Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom, at a hammer price of $9.6 million and also bought paintings by Andy Warhol and Childe Hassam.
Around this point, however, this dot-com tycoon’s fortune began to unravel when Merrill Lynch called in a $25 million loan and various legal suits connected to his art collection, investments and properties commenced. Several of his homes were repossessed and at a court hearing in August 2011, he claimed to have just $112,643 in cash and owned no publicly traded securities. Minor claimed to be majorly broke but the declaration did not cover illiquid assets such as art, real estate and shares in non-public companies. To this day, Minor remains listed in first place on the State of California’s Franchise Tax Board’s top 500 delinquent taxpayers owing some $10,455,580.69.
In response to his supposed progression from riches to rags, Minor wrote an article for The Huffington Post in July 2012 entitled “Why I Fight”:
“I often wonder what Thomas Jefferson would think of today’s America, a nation that is rapidly but silently abandoning the individual in favour of faceless corporations, rapacious banks and a collusive, unresponsive government… The simple answer is that someone must [fight] or we will emerge from this recession with wealth and power concentrated in a few tiny financial institutions representing a new ruling elite, not unlike the one that inspired Thomas Jefferson’s generation to revolution.”
Somehow, in spite of his changed circumstances, Minor has managed to hold on to 3800 Washington Street. Though, during his tenure, the house has fallen into decline and is now half covered in ivy, it is still one of San Francisco’s finest properties and it is still situated in one of the city’s best neighbourhoods. It is still an asset of considerable value and Minor’s decision to sell may well help him rake back some of what he has lost.
The hallway at 3800 Washington Street 
A drawing room at 3800 Washington Street 
One of the property’s dining rooms 
The opulent ballroom at 3800 Washington Street Steven Mavromihalis of Pacific Union International launched 3800 Washington Street onto the market in May 2012 for $25,000,000. This move came just after two Abandoned Building Notices had been issued on the property by the City and County of San Francisco Department of Building Inspection. On offer is the 18,000 square foot main house at 3800 Washington Street, a 2,600 square foot 3-bedroom house at 3810 Washington Street and a vacant lot at 125 Maple Street. Though the agents don’t give much more in the way of details, they do refer to the house having a double marble Palladian staircase, 22 rooms, a “spectacular ballroom,” 8 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 9 fireplaces, 3 kitchens, an elevator and three original stained glass windows by the San Francisco poet, writer sculptor and artist Bruce Porter (1865 – 1964).
According to the agents, 3800 Washington Street is second only to Danielle Steele’s 55-room residence, The Spreckels Mansion, at 2080 Washington Street in the rankings of the largest homes in San Francisco. This is most certainly a mansion with a fair few tales to tell but whoever buys it will need both Steele’s wealth and imagination to get it back into good order. Dot-com tycoons and serial killers need not apply.
Read more about the Zodiac Killer at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer
A profile of Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. is available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_E._Koshland,_Jr.
Read more about the downfall of Halsey Minor at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154564/Halsey-Minor-tech-guru-files-bankruptcy-ruined-Carters-Grove-estate.html
All enquiries about 3800 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118 should be directed to Steven Mavromihalis of Pacific Union International on +1 (415) 345 3030 or email him at: [email protected].
More details are available at: http://www.pacunion.com/homes/CA/San_Francisco/94118/3800__Washington_St/AGT-107397278-685992/ whilst a video tour of the property can be viewed at: http://vimeo.com/42775765
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Dad's van
The sale of the 1935 Ford used as Lance Corporal Jones’s butcher’s van in “Dad’s Army”
A highlight in Bonhams’s 3rd December sale at Mercedes-Benz World Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey will be a van used as Lance Corporal Jones’s butcher’s van in the classic television series, Dad’s Army.
The 1935 “Dad’s Army” Ford Box Van 
The cast of “Dad’s Army” and the Jones’s 1935 Ford Box Van 
Clive Dunn OBE as Lance Corporal Jones in the 1935 Ford Box Van Currently part of the Patrick Motor Museum collection, this 1935 Ford Box Van featured in some of the most iconic shots in the series and has a guide of £20,000 to £30,000.
Jones, played by Clive Dunn OBE (born 1920), was best known for his catchphrases: “Permission to speak, sir?”, “You saved my life!” and “They don’t like it up ‘em!” In Dad’s Army he plays the town butcher of Walmington-on-Sea and when his precious delivery van is commandeered by his Home Guard, he is far from amused when modifications are made to it for the platoon’s activities.
In one episode the van is damaged and Jones becomes so upset that he threatens to ban Captain Mainwaring, the Home Guard company commander, from his sausage list. This is met with the reply: “Steady Jones.”
It may not be a case of: “There’s a war on” when this lot comes to auction, but you can bet there’ll be some fierce bidding. As Jones frequently said: “Don’t panic! Don’t panic!”
For more information on the sale, go to: http://www.bonhams.com
Watch a clip of the van in action at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkoDcFNR1H4&feature=player_embedded
For more information on Dad’s Army, see the Dad’s Army Appreciation Society page at: http://www.dadsarmy.co.uk/