Page 43 - Sample pages "Kim: A Biography of M.G. Founder Cecil Kimber" by Jon Pressnell

The year 1938 would prove a momentous one both for Cecil Kimber and for the M.G. company. In the case of the car company, it saw what has to be regarded as one of the biggest publicity coups achieved by Kimber: the creation of a streamlined record-breaker for Goldie Gardner, who then went on to secure a number of speed records in Germany up until the outbreak of war. On a personal level, meanwhile, the genesis of the Gardner streamliner would coincide with the final chapter in Kimber’s marriage to Rene.
RENE’S DEATH, AND RE-MARRIAGE FOR CECIL KIMBER
Over the last months of 1937, the health of Kimber’s estranged wife further deteriorated. In the spring of 1938 Rene was persuaded, against explicit advice from her Oxford doctor, to go into Poole General Hospital for a bypass operation of the colon. At the time this was an innovative procedure, so the doctor’s caution is understandable; there were not, as there are today, drug treatments for the problem.
After coming through the operation quite well, Rene had an unexpected relapse and died on 21 April; her death certificate gives the cause as ulcerous colitis1. ‘My father came to fetch us, and left me at the Crown and Thistle while he and Betty attended the funeral,’ writes Jean. ‘It was thought, quite wrongly, that children should be shielded from grief and death. I have always been sorry that I was not allowed to go and say goodbye properly.’
1 Today more commonly known as ulcerative colitis.
TOP: Kimber with Bobbie at the Pangbourne fishing hut The Retreat, in 1938 or possibly earlier.
RIGHT: Bobbie, Gillie and Gladys, seen at the same time.
OPPOSITE: The Gardner streamliner on the autobahn, streaking by the Zeppelin shed. (Goldie Gardner courtesy Mike Jones)
© DALTON WATSON FINE B
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS © DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS TON WATSON FINE B