One of the desirable Phantom II Continentals, chassis 14MY was originally delivered to Captain John “Ivan” Murray Cobbold of Glemham Hall in Woodbridge, Ipswich, Suffolk. The Captain was the heir to his family’s brewing fortune, a great sportsman, and had served valiantly in France during the Great War. He would later serve as a liaison officer at the European headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force, helping arrange the planning of D-Day before being killed in the V1 bombing of the Guards’ Chapel in 1944. Long a client of Rolls-Royce, he had previously owned two Phantom IIs, and would subsequently acquire a Phantom III! His Phantom II Continental was originally mounted with a saloon by Barker, and was specified with several unusual touches, including slightly extended exhaust and petrol filler, apparently to suit the Barker coachwork, and a sporty louvered bonnet.

The car was traded to London dealer Paddon Brothers in 1938. Its history is next known to continue in the United States in the mid-1970s, when it came into the ownership of prolific Rolls-Royce collector and pioneering auctioneer, James Leake. Mr Leake commissioned the noted coachbuilder Dick Brockman of Reading to produce the present body, an especially rakish tourer based on an original period design created by the Carlton Carriage Company as the second body on Phantom II Continental no. 6GX. Brockman’s workmanship was superb and the car has all of the beauty of the original. It was eventually sold by Mr Leake to Tom Monaghan, co-founder of Domino’s Pizza, for his collection in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Chassis 14MY was subsequently purchased by Paul Isringhausen, then passed to Thomas Wester. In 2006 it was acquired by Bryan Richmond-Dodd and returned to the United Kingdom, where it has remained since, nicely kept as part of a small collection of largely pre-war-focused fine automobiles. Numerous mechanical upgrades were then undertaken by Hofmann’s of Henley, including an engine rebuild, with invoices for this work on file. The restoration exhibits some patina, especially to the interior, reflective of the age of work, but has overall been well-preserved and is still attractive and charming for touring—the Continental’s finest and ideal use.