Jimmy Stewart with his mother and father, Bob and Jean Stewart. (Graham Gauld Archive.)
Action in the Cooper-Bristol at Charterhall (Graham Gauld)
To say that Jimmy Stewart was lucky to escape from this accident at Le Mans 1954 with the aerodynamically faulted Aston Martin DB3S Coupe, was an understatement. (Graham Gauld Archive.)
Jimmy Stewart, left, with his namesake and team mate Ian Stewart in the 1980’s (Graham Gauld)
Final drive: At Knockhill in 2006 Jimmy Stewart was re-united with the Cooper-Bristol he raced in the 1954 British Grand Prix. (Graham Gauld)
Jimmy Stewart 1931-2008
James Robert Stewart, Jimmy to most of his motor racing friends and Jim to his brother Jackie, died in January 2008 in Glasgow. He was one of the early stalwarts of Ecurie Ecosse, a cheerful and bubbly character whose racing life saw both highlights and low and whose later life mirrored this.
I first met Jimmy Stewart at Charterhall in 1952, when he was racing a Healey Silverstone sports car. Prior to that he had run an MG in sprint and hill climb events but graduated to the Healey with the support of his father, Bob Stewart, who saw that his son had racing talent. Jimmy’s performances in the Healey came to the eye of David Murray and during a conversation, later that season at Charterhall, David Murray hinted to Bob Stewart that Jimmy might be recruited to Ecurie Ecosse if Bob were willing to purchase one of the then-new customer C-type Jaguars for the 1953 season. Murray also talked about this to Ninian Sanderson’s father, Bob Sanderson, and both fathers ordered C-types through the Edinburgh Jaguar distributors Rossleighs. The two cars, 041 for the Jimmy Stewart car and 042 for the Sanderson Car were completed in March 1953 and delivered to Merchiston Mews in time to be prepared for the first Charterhall race meeting of the season on April 12.
Both cars had drum brakes, as was the fashion, and Jimmy Stewart immediately started out with two second places, at Charterhall and at Ibsley. It is interesting that the most successful performance by the Jimmy Stewart C-type was at Nurburgring in August when Roy Salvadori and Ian Stewart took it to second place at the Nurburgring. (Jimmy Stewart could not drive it as he was doing National Service in the army.)
For 1954 Ecurie Ecosse were able to buy three of the lightweight factory Jaguar C-types with disc brakes and Jimmy Stewart was a member of the team, this time with permission to race from the War Office, so that he was not tied down with his National Service. He started the season well at Castle Coombe with a second place driving the Jaguar C type (053) that Peter Walker and Stirling Moss had finished second with at the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hour Race. However it was in the sister car, chassis 052, that Jimmy Stewart has his many successes in 1954. He had a string of wins and was hoping to be called up to the Jaguar factory team for Le Mans but this was not to be. When he was offered a drive at Le Mans in the factory Aston Martin team he jumped at the chance. It was not a good move as he was given one of two experimental Aston Martin DB3S Coupes sharing the drive with Graham Whitehead. Recalling the race Jimmy remarked that in practice he found the front end going light on the Mulsanne straight and realised that by adding the hard top the Aston was lifting the front end at high speed. The same was happening to the sister Aston Martin DB3S of Peter Collins and Prince Bira so both crews decided to be careful in the event. However, in the seventh hour, with Jimmy at the wheel the car went out of control near White House bend and overturned. Luckily Jimmy was thrown out and he recalls sliding along the grass verge and watching the car somersault down the road ahead of him. Six hours later with Prince Bira at the wheel the other Coupe suffered a similar fate about 200 yards apart! This accident saw Jimmy with a badly broken arm which put him out of racing for the rest of the season.
Apart from the Jaguars Jimmy had proved to be good in single-seaters. He was the first to drive the Ecurie Ecosse Connaught Formula 2 car in April 1954. He was to finish second at Castle Coombe with the car. However it was his exploits in the British Grand Prix of 1954 with the Cooper Bristol that was to be his crowning day. Faced with the might of Ferrari, Cooper and Maserati factory teams he was driving at his best and managed to get up to sixth place before running off the track at Silverstone. There have been many reasons for this, one of them that one of the Coopers wheels collapsed under the strain.
With the completion of National Service Jimmy went back to the family garage at Dumbuck and continued his life as sales manager selling cars. He attended all of the Ecurie Ecosse social functions and for the 1955 season Ecurie Ecosse took on the factory Jaguar D-types which Jimmy loved to drive. The D-types were initially a disappointment as there were serious problems with the disc brakes. Murray had had some of this with the factory C-types but hoped the D-types would be better. However they had problems at Goodwood and then came Silverstone where Jimmy crashed, again through the pedal going to the floor. Then came the Nurburgring where Jimmy was all too aware of the problem. However on the opening lap on the downhill towards Adenau Bridge Jimmy braked to find a dead pedal. He hit the brake pedal again and this time they locked up. The car swerved to the right hitting the banking hard and bouncing back to go backwards through the opposite hedge and end upside down. By pure luck Jimmy had fallen into a ditch with the car braced on top of him. The hedges at Nurburgring are thick and it was some time later before Stirling Moss in his Aston Martin saw some odd tyre marks and stopped his car. He looked over the hedge and here was Jimmy trapped under the D-type. Again Jimmy’s arm was badly broken and later his doctor told him that if he broke it again he may have to lose it which was a dramatic opinion but as Jimmy’s mother was by now fearful of Jim having a serious accident he decided to retire from racing.
What made it even sadder for him was the fact that Lofty England had offered him his factory drive at Le Mans just before the Nurburgring race and intimated that he would share a factory D-type with Mike Hawthorn who was to go on to win the tragic 1955 Le Mans with Ivor Bueb.
Again Jimmy returned to the motor business and settled down. He married and had two children, Iain and Daniela but his marriage collapsed. Also, the garage was sold to Jackie Stewart and later to family friends John and Nan Lindsay. Jimmy later worked with Callanders in Glasgow, the Mercedes-Benz distributors but suffered a road accident which damaged one of his eyes. By now he had taken to alcohol and though he remained cheerful with his friends his alcoholism was worsening. Jackie Stewart was very concerned about his brother but knew he could do nothing unless Jimmy asked for help, which he eventually did. From then on Jimmy recovered from alcoholism and was in the greatest of spirits, playing golf at his favourite Cardross Golf Club (where Jackie had bought him a life membership) and was having the time of his life when he went to hospital in January not feeling well. He was operated on but things took a turn for the worse and he died on Thursday January 3 2008.
Exactly two months later, on Monday March 3 Jackie Stewart arranged a remarkable Memorial Thanksgiving Service to Jimmy in Glasgow Cathedral. It was a remarkable affair where Jackie and family covered Jimmy’s life with moments of joy and sadness. As Jimmy Stewart had been a successful boy soprano, until his voice broke, the emphasis was on music. As Jimmy had often sung with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra the entire string section of the orchestra was present to play. There was also the pipe band of the Royal Highland Fusiliers.
One of the C-type Jaguars raced by Jimmy Stewart for Ecurie Ecosse was parked outside alongside the Cooper Bristol Jimmy had raced thanks to Dick Skipworth and Barry Wood, the current owners. Inside, however, were many of Scotland’s leading racing drivers of the past and present. David Coulthard and his fiancé Carol came from Monaco and amongst the Scottish drivers who had raced for Ecurie Ecosse present were Graham Birrell, Bill Dryden, Andrew Cowan and Alasdair McCaig. Hugh McCaig. Graham Gauld and George Scott represented Ecurie Ecosse today. John Coombs, who had at one time employed Jimmy Stewart came from Monaco and former British Hill Climb Champion Mike McDowell were there along with other Scottish International racing drivers like Billy Skelly, Andrew Fletcher, Eric Liddell and his son Robin Liddell, Douglas Niven, Lance Gauld, Campbell McLaren, Jock Russell, Barry Wood, Logan and Sandy Morrison.
One of the most moving addresses was given by Ian Stewart ,one of the original members of Ecurie Ecosse and Jimmy Stewart’s team mate and admitted that in his opinion Jimmy was a faster driver than he. Karen Cargill the International mezzo-soprano also sang but for many the greatest surprise came when Jackie Stewart introduced the great Eric Clapton who called on Paul Stewart to accompany him in singing “St Clements” It was a truly memorable occasion and a fitting reminder of a great motor racing career truly launched by Ecurie Ecosse.
GG
Footnote:
As mentioned above Ian Stewart, one of the founder members of Ecurie Ecosse gave an eloquent address commenting on Jimmy Stewart and the early days of Ecurie Ecosse. However, by a remarkable piece of co-incidence, when he arrived home. "/ I found that I was wearing what I call my Ecurie Ecosse socks. These were socks I actually borrowed from one of our other original team members, Sir James Scott Douglas, and never gave them back to him. What made them special back in 1953 was that Jamie had brought a few pairs back from the USA and they were made of nylon which was something very special back then and I have kept them in a drawer. I did not realise these were the socks I had worn to the Memorial Service to Jimmy."
GG