Doug Nye: In memory of the 10th Duke of Richmond and Gordon

To me he – and to many of us who got to know him through the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Revival and Members’ Meetings, he was a quiet, private, discreet, whimsical, charming, cricket-loving, immensely pleasant and drily humorous "Good Old Boy". And – in part as a fellow amateur wicket keeper – I will remember him with considerable affection and great respect. He used to umpire at every Revival cricket match, and this has particular gravitas for me this weekend since for the first time – owing to family illness about which I will not bore you – I am missing the match.

At an early edition, the Duke turned to me from his position at square leg and remarked “Doug – when I kept wicket I always found it best either to stand right up to the wicket, or well back. Not somewhere in between…”. In effect, he reminded me of our old sports master at school. There was no doubting his gentle tone of quiet, positive reproof. Just as there was no doubting his crisp verdict of “Not out!” almost every time I optimistically appealed that a batsman was out leg before wicket…or even for a catch behind (and I still swear I heard a snick on one of those which got away).

Way back, I did an interview with his Grace, and in tribute to him here it is… relating the background to Goodwood’s Historic motor sporting meetings.

“Charles Gordon Lennox – the 10^th Duke of Richmond and Gordon – sat back comfortably in his tall-backed armchair. A log fire flickered comfortably in the grate. Shafts of pastel winter sunlight beamed in through the high windows, and his grey lurcher dog slept soundly, stretched full-length on her bed behind my sofa. I opened the large hardbound note pad on my lap, uncapped my pen, and asked this gentle man, whom I had known for the past fifteen years; “Well your Grace, where do we start with this one; the story of your motor circuit, and of Charles’ Goodwood Revival Meeting…?”.

“Well Doug, as you know, my interests do not particularly involve the motor car nor motor racing. But I was certainly present at the first day of racing, when my father opened the circuit, in 1948. I used to attend major meetings after that, but by no means every one. In the early days, with having been something of a mathematics specialist at school and so on, I thought the handicap races should be closer than they were. Time handicaps were based upon a car and driver’s previous lap times and I got involved with John Morgan and ‘Ebby’ Ebblewhite – the BARC’s famous timekeeper – on trying to improve that system.

“But from 1958-66 I was not much involved at all, I moved near to Rugby and became detached.

“Father was a very sensitive man. He became deeply troubled whenever anybody got injured or even killed on the circuit. He stopped motor racing in 1966 because of the way he saw motor racing going. Technical developments were making the cars simply too fast. He could foresee a time when they would be approaching 200mph along the straight and was deeply concerned that any accident might involve spectators. Drivers were one thing, but spectators were another. He studied further safety measures which were conceivable at that time, and concluded it would be very expensive indeed to put in all the measures he would have liked. Once he could see cars getting even faster, that was it. 

“He came under a lot of pressure not to take that decision, and although the circuit was indeed closed to racing it was kept in order to allow every kind of use short of actual racing. It was used for testing, rallies, sprints – every kind of activity which would generate some income. 

“I returned to Goodwood in 1969 and took the view that as father had been the moving spirit behind establishing the circuit, and then behind closing it, then I ought to respect his wishes…

“But around 1968-69 we were both keen to restart an aviation business at the infield aerodrome there. Of course, father had had a business interest in flying with his Hordern-Richmond Aircraft company just pre-war. Now we bought a few light ’planes, began a flying school and started teaching. I appointed retired Air Chief-Marshal Sir Thomas Pritchett as managing director. Our old company which managed the circuit site was called the Goodwood Road Racing Company, but since we no longer allowed any racing and much of our activity now involved flying we decided to change the company title. We came up with the Goodwood Terrena Company, which we used from 1968 to around 1992-93. 

“To persuade owners to keep their aircraft at Goodwood we had to offer hangars and a maintenance service, and so that section of the circuit was developed accordingly. 

“My father was always interested in racing but he didn’t go abroad to races. I remember he took us to the 1937 Pau Grand Prix in southern France but I don’t recall him going anywhere else. He simply did not like travelling abroad. 

“I was evacuated to America in 1940 together with my mother and brother. I didn’t return until 1943. I clearly remember the Typhoons operating from the aerodrome. They made the most incredible noise. You knew when their squadrons were taking off all right! 

“The immediate postwar period was undoubtedly a difficult time.

“I was tutored with my brother from October to December 1943, then went to boarding school. We spent summer holidays in Cornwall, went shooting, and I left school in 1948 and trained as an accountant. Like my father, I thought it was vital one should go out into the world and do things other than stay here. 

“Charles today has done the same – he went out and made his own way in the world before eventually returning to run the Estate. When you come back, you see things through different eyes. I think that was of benefit to my father, it was of benefit to me, and it has certainly helped make Charles the businessman he is. He trained to be a photographer, and it shows through in the things he does.

“I was called-up for National Service in the autumn of 1948 and started five days after that opening Goodwood race meeting in September. I served until April 1950. I spent most of the time at Winchester apart from a spell at Eaton Hall officer training centre in Cheshire. We spent our time training recruits. I wouldn’t have minded being posted abroad, but it didn’t happen….

“I persuaded father to hold proper board meetings from about 1954. Father said to me I don’t know what you’re going to do when you leave the Army. I sit on one or two company boards and believe me, these days it’s the accountants who have the say-so. Your maths are good, why don’t you study accountancy. 

“Johnny Hill was our track manager – Ralph Hubbard was the company secretary under my father responsible for the whole Estate. He was actually the son of the previous agent. Robin McKay later managed the motor circuit, and he was the son of our forestry manager. 

“So I qualified and was taken on by a now long-gone company of stockbrokers in the City of London, Grundy Cole & Company. I joined them as an articled clerk and worked there for six years.

“We have always known there are valuable gravel deposits at the circuit site. We would probably have made more money by allowing it to be exploited, but that’s an option we never seriously considered. My main concern during father’s lifetime was not to disturb decisions that he had made. He died in November 1989, aged 85.

“He wasn’t a businessman. He was an engineer. His grandmother was Amy Ricardo of the engineering family, and his great grandfather had been Thomas Brassey, the civil and railway engineer so I think it was in the genes. His extremely forceful grandmother came from that family which had made a great deal of money from engineering, then went into property, became landed gentry and then went hunting! She expected father to share the same interests. She really didn’t approve of his tinkering with cars; thought he should have been on a horse. He joined the Sussex Yeomanry. 

“My grandfather got polio in World War 1. Grandmother was the boss. It is said that in 1930 the butler came in and announced “Your Grace, I have just been listening to the wireless and I thought you would like to know that Lord March is presently leading the Double 12-Hour race at Brooklands in his motor car…”. That caused some excitement…

“My father gave up racing after my mother had been at Brooklands as a spectator when a terrible accident occurred right in front of her. A driver was obviously hurt and somebody standing beside her in the crowd asked his friend ‘Who was that?’ and the answer – wrongly – was ‘Poor old Freddie March, what a pity…’”. She was pregnant at the time…

“When Charles came back to Goodwood I thought that the best way for him to start was to take over one of the Estate’s activities in order to find his feet. He took on the motor circuit and flying, and within very few months he’d come up with this idea for the Festival of Speed. I was perfectly happy with that. When the gate keepers ran out of containers for the gate money that first year Mr Cass at the Sculpture Park came out with seven of Mrs Cass’s handbags to help us out!

“We used to have one horse racing event a year, just four days and its rarity and its sense of occasion made a big difference to its appeal. We have to be careful today that one activity does not compete with another. 

“The Festival of Speed used to be Saturday and Sunday and we had a very good horse race meeting on the Friday. Trainers began to get upset about having their valuable and highly-strung race horses disturbed by the noise of the racing cars and so we had to abandon the Friday-night horse race meeting – but generally – with everyone pitching in – it has gone rather better than we could have expected…” 

As I said – “A good old Boy” – and from me sincere condolences to his widow, the lovely Duchess and of course to the entire family.