Louis Zborowski in ‘Chitty Bang Bang I’ (Brooklands Society Archive).


Great Northern Railway Ivat ‘Atlantic’ locomotive, which he ran in the garden of his Woodbridge home. This was nothing however to compare with his experience in May 1911 at the opening of the Rhyl Miniature Railway which Howey attended as a guest of Bassett-Lowke, the company which had made his steam locomotive. Here he was able to drive a 15-inch ‘Atlantic’ at speed on a circular track and where he ‘caught the 15-inch bug’.


Royal Flying Corps


Personal interests and hobbies were about to be put on hold as John Howey joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1914, flying as an observer for a year before being shot down and held as a prisoner of war. He was later declared medically unfit for military service and released on parole to Switzerland in 1917.


After the war he took a house in Belgravia and became something of a socialite. He also had a


house in Sunningdale where he built a large model railway in the garage. A new interest however was motor racing and, in particular, the attractions of the Brooklands circuit which lay just a few miles away in Weybridge. John certainly associated with the ‘right crowd’, which included Parry Thomas and Count Louis Zborowski. In 1922 Thomas had modified a short-chassis,


Howey at the wheel of ‘Chitty I’ (RH&DR Association Heritage Group Collection).


34


Howey in his army uniform, taken from a newspaper cutting after his plane had been shot down. His pilot had been killed and Howey had to climb forwards over the dead man’s body and land the plane, this was behind enemy lines and he was captured and held as a POW (RH&DR Association Heritage Group Collection).


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