Robin Montgomerie-Charrington

Robin Montgomerie-Charrington (born Robert Victor Campbell Montgomerie) and popularly known as ‘Monty’, was born in June 1915, at Hunsdon House, Hertfordshire, home of the Charrington brewing family. His great grandfather was Spencer Charrington, a noted MP, and his grandmother had married Rear Admiral Montgomerie, losing the family name in the process. In 1923, Robin’s father restored the name, which required His Majesty’s assent. Educated at Eton College and after taking up farming, he started racing in Formula 3 in 1950, with a Cooper Mk IV-JAP. He won a heat at Brands Hatch in July and finished third in the Junior Race at Brands Hatch in September then in October, he was third in his heat for the Open Challenge race at the circuit and his wife, Marsyl, took part in the Ladies Race at that same meeting.

Racing a Cooper T16 in Italian F2 in 1951, he did not finish in the Gran Premio de´ll Autodromo di Monza, the Gran Premio Reale di Roma plus a non championship Grandee Trophée entre Sambre et Meuse. Finishes included third at Pau, fourth at Madrid and Nurburgring plus third in the Due des Alpes Hillclimb and fourteenth in the Gran Premio de´ll V Centenario.

During this time, fellow racer Bill Aston intended designing his own chassis and when it was announced that the World Driver’s Championship was switching to F2 regulations in 1952, he set about designing his car around the new rules. A Cooper T20 chassis was acquired, to which he made exterior and interior changes, but he required an engine, which is where Archie Butterworth became involved. He had been a prominent hillclimb racer and at one point invented a hillclimb special, which used an American Jeep for the chassis and was powered by a German engine. His Steyr-engined AJB chassis performed successfully in straight-line sprints and hillclimbs and after raising its power output from the original 85bhp to 260bhp he eventually entered the AJB in a major non-championship F1 race, the 1950 International Trophy. The AJB became the world’s first 4WD F1 car to start a race but unfortunately it suffered a crank-shaft bearing failure on the first lap in the race. Butterworth was heavily injured in an accident at Shelsley Walsh, which effectively ended his driving career, so he turned his attention to engine design. Aston had initially planned to purchase a Kuchen V8 engine but these were in short supply so he approached Butterworth regarding a powerplant. He had been working on producing a ‘swing valve’ engine but it wasn’t ready so as a compromise he designed a 1984cc engine and sold two to him. Aston chose to name the car an ‘Aston Butterworth’ and much of it was designed around the engine. With the engine being a flat-four, this meant he could design a nose much closer to the ground than the factory Coopers which allowed for a low bonnet on the car and gave it a very low centre of gravity compared to its counterparts plus impressive handling. Another novelty was a swing-axle rear suspension, which was used in the first race at Goodwood, but this was soon dropped in favour of the conventional Cooper lay-out. He approached Robin (who was a friend) about sharing driving duties, to which he agreed, but soon asked for his own chassis and, though he was British, asked that the new car (designated the NB42) be painted in American racing stripes in honour of his wife’s nationality. There was a single car entry for Aston at the non-championship Lavant Cup at Goodwood in April, where he finished eighth while the International Trophy at Silverstone in May saw both him and Robin retire with mechanical troubles in their heats. In late May Robin entered the Grand Prix de Paris at Monthlery, but his race ended after twenty six laps due to clutch issues. There were three races in the following month and he drove well to finish third (behind Paul Frere and Ken Downing) in the Grand Prix des Frontieres at Chimay, despite coasting over the finish line out of fuel. This was followed with a sole entry for him at Spa for the team’s first World Championship race. He surprised onlookers by qualifying fifteenth of the twenty two runners, ahead of drivers including Louis Rosier and Prince Bira and a Ferrari, two HWMs and three Gordinis. In the race he was up to seventh by lap fourteen, which was only two places outside the points positions at the time. Unfortunately, during a pit stop the car was filled with the wrong mixture of fuel, which led to the engine developing a misfire, and his race came to an end two laps later. In the following week’s Grand Prix de la Marne at Reims he contrived to strip his car of its gears but then managed to locate a local gear-cutter that machined new gears while he waited. However, his efforts were in vain as transmission problems ended his race after fifteen laps.

By the end of the year he had stopped racing and emigrated to the USA in 1954 with his wife. The couple would eventually divorce and Marsyl went on to be a successful racing horse breeder, first in the UK, then in Virginia. Robin later returned to Britain and was occasionally seen at historic race meetings and passed away on the 3rd April 2007 at Moreton-in-Marsh in the Cotswolds.