Bill Dobson, left, photographed in 2007 at Knockhill driving Sir James Scott Douglas’ Jaguar XK120. His passenger is his friend and Ecurie Ecosse enthusiast Alan Collins.(Graham Gauld Archive.)
Bill Dobson 1921-2008
Bill Dobson, one of the three founder members of Ecurie Ecosse, died on October 13 in a nursing home in Edinburgh and was cremated at Mortonhall Crematorium on Monday October 20.
Bill, who was born on September 27 1921, was perhaps the least known of all three original members – the other two were Ian Stewart and Sir James Scott Douglas – perhaps because he was only with the team for their initial racing season, 1952. Sadly Bill was persuaded to retire from racing at the end of that year by his father who felt that he should spend more time in the family contracting business. After his retirement Bill Dobson rarely appeared at motor racing events and was almost forgotten until, in recent years, he turned up for historic events at Knockhill.
From a young age Bill Dobson was fascinated by cars and by motor racing and immediately after the war he ran his Alvis in one or two events before “Wilkie” Wilkinson, the service director of Merchiston Motors convinced him that he needed a much more competitive car to race with. Wilkinson found a pre-war BMW 328 and it was with this car that Dobson began to be noticed. He competed in the first Scottish race meeting at Winfield in 1951 as well as in hill climbs and speed events. However, when, in November 1951 David Murray hatched his plan to create a Scottish motor racing team he remembered Bill Dobson because the Dobson contracting business was not far from the Mews and Bill was a frequent visitor. Murray’s problem in founding Ecurie Ecosse was that he had been offered good money by Esso but the stipulation was that all the cars in the team had to be the same make. As Ian Stewart had already proved to be Scotland’s most promising racing driver with a Jaguar XK120 and as Murray himself had taken delivery of an XK120 he decided that this would be the car. Murray’s wife Jenny forbade David Murray to race and so he started to look out for another two drivers. He spoke to Bill Dobson and it was agreed that Bill would trade in his BMW328 and take over David Murray’s Jaguar XK120 and so Murray now had two drivers with Sir James Scott Douglas to follow and complete the team.
David Murray also promised Bill Dobson the chance to drive the Formula 2 Ferrari that David Murray had bought and Bill Dobson’s first race for Murray was in the Ferrari. He proved very successful with what as a difficult car and proved that he clearly had great talent as a racing driver. He was to have a series of good results in 1952 and it was a pity that he had to withdraw from racing at the end of the season. In recent years Bill had come back into the fold, so to speak, and was good company. He also had the pleasure of demonstrating his former team mate Jamie Scott Douglas’ Jaguar XK120 at Knockhill during the historic meeting in 2007. He died in a nursing home at the age of 87 after a short illness and will be remembered by those of us who saw him race.
There was a large turnout at the cremation service and many Ecurie Ecosse personalities were present including Stan Sproat the long time chief mechanic at Ecurie Ecosse, the current patron of Ecurie Ecosse, Hugh McCaig, Graham Gauld, David Murray’s former secretary Wendy Jones, George Scott, Laurie Doonan, and former Ecosse drivers Bill Dryden, and David Duffield and former entrant, Nicol Cuthbert. There were large wreaths from the British Racing Drivers Club and from Ecurie Ecosse and Bill’s sister, children and grandchildren were also present.