One sunny, Sunday afternoon in May, on the outskirts of Cannock Chase in south Staffordshire, I saw the Spirit of Ecstasy shining through a windscreen. The vision to be savoured is better known as the Silver Lady, and the windscreen belonged to a ‘baby Rolls’, ordered from its makers in August 1925 by Mr. J.Walker, a Yorkshire Mill owner, for a tidy £2000 : sufficient in those days for the purchase of ten semi-detached houses. This beautiful survivor from more spacious days, with its gleaming white body (from coach-builders Rippon Bros.), now resides at the back of Granville Angell’s semi-detached residence in Cannock. There it rubs running-boards with two 1936 18hp Austin 6’s (six cylinders), two 1928 12hp Austins and one 1937 20hp Austin (the ‘Chalfont’) : one of only ten left in the world. Nestling together around an apple-tree (the last witness to what was once a back garden), there was no discernible sibling rivalry - even the Royce seemed quite at home. For home is where the heart is, and Granville Angell loves his cars. “I was in the Fleet Air Arm for 23 years. Two years at sea was followed by two years shore-bound. I always had to sell my car. So I made myself a promise that when I retired I’d have an old car to play with, little realizing that it would change my life - and indeed, would become my life.” Since his first buy was an Austin - a Ruby, made at Longbridge like all his treasured Austins, he stuck with the mark. “You’ve got a better chance of getting parts.” As you can see from the photographs, he needs the parts, for Granville’s collection is made of loving restorations.
    Having no connection with the motor-trade, he learned engineering in the Navy, where he was told “If it moves, you either grease it or salute it. If you can’t do that : paint it!” Now aged 65, Senior Warden of his mother lodge, Chaplain of Nautical Services 5629 and Knight Templar in Richard de Vernon No. 52 Preceptory, Granville Angell has had plenty of opportunity to do all three - and never seems to tire. Navy discipline and a hopeful heart keeps him going; he has a lot of patience.
    Granville spotted one car in an awful condition outside its owners garage. He knocked on the owner’s door and offered to buy it, but was refused. Seventeen years later, the owner called him up and capitulated. One of the 1936 Austins had been bought by a student just after the war for £3 and completely dismantled. Granville located it in a number of boxes in Epping Forest where it had lain dismembered for twenty-five years. It now looks brand-new. Little wonder that hopeful couples queue up to hire one of his cars for their nuptial departures.
    “You try the best that is humanly possible to get back to originality.” The Royce cost him £20,000 to get back on the road, an expense which evinces the same sacrifice and determination which in 1972 made him the first non-commissioned officer on the lower deck to earn a degree (in economic history) by correspondence-course. Received from the hand of HRH the Queen Mother, it took him nine years. An eleven-plus failure, he also obtained 8 O-levels and 5 A-levels while stationed at Malta for two years. Told by his senior officers: “Give up, you’ll never do it!”, he quoted the Bible at them: “O ye of little faith. If you think I’ve given all those years to fail, you underestimate me.” Determination is in the spirit of the ancient Angell family.
    I asked him if there was a connection between his interest in classic cars and his masonry. “It’s a love of history, a love of the past. I always see myself as a custodian. Both with the cars and with masonry, I hope to give something to the next generations of what used to be and what still works : what standards have been achieved. This knowledge can help to guide us in the future.” This interest in the value of the past to the future is a guiding-force. I asked him whether joining the Templars had changed his life. “It’s a natural home to me. I know within myself that of all the side degrees, it’s the one I enjoy considerably. There’s a connection with my Navy experience. The Templars are a military-Christian order. Today we’re fighting sin and deprivation. Is not the main thrust of the Templars charitable? - supporting doctors in Jerusalem with our subscriptions, for example.” I referred to the fact that the original medieval Templars fought for Christ with weapons. What would a modern Templar think of fighting? “I find no problem with that. Many Templars lost their lives in the two world wars. It’s a promotion and defence of the Christian faith.”
    Granville has other links with the past. Not only is he lord of Cannock (a title which came to him after his father, a farmer and church-organist, bought land off the Marquis of Anglesey) - “In practical terms, it’s an old title. You can appoint an ale-taster. We’re discussing the appointment of a town-cryer. I’m entitled to a peppercorn rent of one rose from the seven ‘Hays’ (outlying villages)” - he is also a keen genealogist, and is currently trying to find a link with possible kinsman Sir Guichard d’Angle (a Norman knight who died in 1380), who was described in terms which Granville thinks appropriate to a modern Templar : “he was merry, true, amorous, sage, secret, large, hardy, adventurous and chivalrous.” Granville’s coat-of-arms bears the motto “LOVE CHARITY TRUTH” and these words are elucidated on a scroll he has commissioned for the forthcoming appointment of a constable. They perfectly capture the best of this special man who I was lucky enough to encounter on a sunny Sunday in May :

LOVE and due reverence for God. Love of his country, its Flag, Laws and Customs. Love of family, and friends. Courtesy towards his neighbours and all others within the bound of the man.
CHARITY A good Christian feeling due foremost to the poor and distressed. To offer lenience in the judgement of others, forgivenness for the penitent. Give succour and aid in times of need. Offer alms for the community.
TRUTH An Angell liegeman shall adopt its character, whose halo be the light of truth. Unimpeachable, faithful, loyal, true in all undertakings, unerring in the pursuit of high moral standards.
Granville Angell : a man of the past - with a message for now and evermore.