Ken Wharton

We feel that no better obituary to Ken Wharton can be offered than that which attained the Editorial column of the Sunday Express dated January 13th :—

“Happy are those men to whom death is an enemy of no account. There are some of them in every generation. They build empires, win wars, break records.

“And all the time they laugh at danger.

“Racing driver Ken Wharton was one of these few.

“Blue-chinned and brawny, he had a large srnile for every awed small boy and a grin at the starting grid.

“Now he is gone, killed in a Grand Prix the other side of the world.

“A life thrown away on a dangerous and useless sport ?

“Not at all.

“Wharton was one of the men who bring a sting of excitement and romance into the lives of millions.

“Such men neither live nor die in vain.”

Except to add that, apart from bringing excitement and romance to millions, Wharton’s calling was of inestimable value to technical research, the more so because this well-liked British driver, who had so many close calls during his career, had a sound engineering background, having, indeed, built his own competition cars.

All credit to the Sunday Express for its sensibly-worded obituary—and none at all to papers like the Daily Express (which promotes motor races!) and to The Times, which pander to sensationalism by publishing pictures of racing drivers dying under or near their cars.