Babs

Sir,

In your February edition of V-E-V, there was an article “Babs on TV”, with Wyn-Owen quoting from the programme that “Babs” was probably named after a young lady.

This is in fact quite true. The young lady in question being Ada Dobson. Her father, Henry Dobson, helped build the body of the car whilst working for Thrupp and Maberly in South London.

Young Ada, about 4-5 years old at the time, used to bring her father’s lunch to the garage. On one of his frequent visits, Parry Thomas took a liking to Ada (who used to be called Babs), and decided to name his car after her. She is now Mrs. Jennings and resides in Portsmouth.

I would just like to take this opportunity to tell you what a great magazine you have. It’s the best 30-pence-worth on the market. Keep up the good work.

Portsmouth R. COLLINS

[They say one is never too old to learn; I did not know that Parry Thomas, as well as Malcolm Campbell, used Thrupp & Maberly for LSR bodywork.-Ed.]