Harry Kelham

Friday 1 December 1995 Sheffield Star Drive Supplement page 3

My Ruby Was A Little Gem

Harry Kelham remembers his first love affair with motoring

By Carmel Stewart

Harry Kelham bought his 1933 Austin Ruby Saloon in August, 1939 for £63 -when petrol was about one shilling a gallon and an exhaust pipe would cost you 13/7d (67p). Two years later, in July 1941, he sold it for £45. “Nowadays it would be worth a lot of money,” said 78-year-old Harry. “But the war was on and petrol was hard to find.

But it was worth more to me than money. I think that everyone has a love for their first car - the others are just boxes on wheels. My car was the means for me to enjoy the thrill of travelling all round the country.”

Harry, who has lived in Totley for 47 years, bought the car from the Station Garage, Dore, after seeing it in their Ecclesall Road showroom at Hunters Bar. “It was very easy to learn on so passing the test wasn’t too difficult. There wasn’t so much traffic on the roads in those days either. “I used it a lot for the ARP mobile squad and after that as transport for the Home Guard officers going round the various divisional posts.”

Harry worked for Wigfalls from 1933-1979, starting as an office boy and working his way up to the post of internal auditor. The eight horsepower, two-door, black saloon, with a leather interior, did 30 mpg and had a top speed of 42 mph -“unless you were going downhill with the wind behind you then it would go faster.” It had three gears, plus reverse, and though it had a self-starter Harry usually used the starting handle, so as to save the battery. “It was an easy car to maintain too as the engine was very straight forward - not like the ones they have nowadays.”

Before the war started, putting an end to his youthful jaunts, Harry, often accompanied by Molly who is now his wife, drove the car round Sheffield and occasionally further afield. “The longest journey we went on was to Swannage in Dorset just before the war. On the day we returned all the signposts were taken down to confuse the enemy so we had to get back by guesswork.”

Harry and his friend Albert Smith have written about their war time exploits in The Cat and the Cabbage, which is available from Totley Rise post office, price £4.