・Former war hero’s Austin 10 with hand-written memories

・Complete log of every journey completed from 1937 to 1958

・Original paperwork, toolkit, logbooks, ration stamps, first aid kit

・Never fully restored with irreplaceable patina

On February 20th 1944 at 11.50am, a German U-Boat took fire at the British warship, HMS Warwick, splitting it in half with a torpedo. 

It was one of the most significant attacks ever on British ships in their own water and took place just off the coast of Padstow in Cornwall, resulting in the ship sinking and 66 of its 110-strong crew dying at sea. 

It was a tragedy. A tragedy that Commander John Winfield Heath was unable to prevent, as despite his work as an Anti-Submarine Officer for the Royal Navy, multiple crews had failed to spot the U-Boat that went on to fire a torpedo at the ship’s boiler room. Commander Heath, along with 43 of his colleagues, survived the blast and were rescued by an aptly named fishing trawler called Lady Luck. 

That evening, with the stiffest of British upper lips, Cdr Heath drove himself home to Dorset in his Austin A10 Cambridge, placing an entry in the car’s diary that read: “Embarked on HMS Scimitar then transferred to HMS Warwick, torpedoed and sunk at 11.50am, returned to Devonport Barracks with other survivors.” A couple of months later, an entry is made in the log about the car being parked up for a couple of months while Cdr Heath received treatment at the Chatham Royal Naval Hospital (you can only imagine what for), between a cylinder head overhaul and the fitment of two new Dunlop Tyres. 

It’s not the kind of thing you expect to find in a car’s service history, but it’s just one of the incredible notes kept by Cdr Heath during his 21-year ownership of CUR 890, which he acquired new in 1937. Other records include a journey across Exmoor in 1941 in storm conditions, driving with no lights on because of a blackout. “What a day!” he wrote. Then there are his unbridled opinions on fuel rationing – “insulting and vindictive class warfare by the so-called Socialist government!” 

You can spend days going through this car’s history, and you really, really should. For what we have here is not just an example of Austin’s popular ‘Light Car’ of the 1930s and 1940s, but a truly remarkable piece of British history, containing a personal account of a significant moment in World War Two along with a snapshot of life in general during the most troubled era of the 20th century. It’s a car that needs a custodian rather than an owner. Someone to preserve its incredible past and ensure that future generations can experience what it does to you – and it really does leave a lasting effect.

The Austin was supplied new in May 1937, just after Cdr Heath’s 38th birthday, by an Austin dealership in Watford, Herts, and was immediately driven to his home in Wimborne St Giles, Dorset, from where he racked up an astonishing mileage in 1930s terms, mostly on Royal Navy business. 

By the time he’d filled ‘Log Book 1’ in 1938, he had taken the little Austin up to 21,743 miles, recording every journey, refueling and incident along the way. Among them were a failed head gasket and a broken speedometer – faults that cropped up repeatedly during his ownership and were recorded in a very matter of fact way, as if they were regular servicing. 

Cdr Heath kept the car until he was 59 years old, using it on official business during the whole of World War Two where he was an Anti-Submarine Officer for the Navy, hence how he ended up aboard HMS Warwick. The irony being that official records show he was brought aboard as an official submarine expert as there were suspicions of U-Boat activity in the area, but he never had the time to make proper investigations. 

In 1958, CUR 890 was parked up, having covered 151,665 miles in the hands of one owner. A remarkable achievement for a car of its era. 

It remained unused until 1973, when it was recommissioned by its second owner. In 1977, it was given a cosmetic restoration by a third keeper and then it was parked up again in the 1990s for several years, before it was acquired last year by the vendor, who purchased it from a family member of its most recent keeper.

So where do we start? The Austin has quite possibly the most incredible hand-written history log you’re ever likely to encounter in a car, recounting snapshots of wartime life alongside general maintenance. 

Cdr Heath may have started his vehicle log as a record of the car’s use and maintenance, but as 20th century Britain went through a period of monumental change his thoughts and opinions start to slip into the seven separate log books he kept for the car, becoming more impassioned and political as he gets older. It’s a deeply personal insight into a life that was clearly fully lived. In 1949, coincidental (or perhaps not) with his 50th birthday, Cdr Heath acquired an Armstrong-Siddeley sports car, and the Austin’s log documents the times he swapped the two cars over to use the Siddeley, which appeared to only be taken out for touring holidays and weekends away. 

On top of that, the car comes with its original ivory logbook, stamped each time that Cdr Heath moved house, along with government stamps to show he’d paid his road tax, and several sheets of fuel ration stamps. Due to his role, Cdr Heath had a larger than standard petrol ration and acquired most of his fuel from MOD bases, with ration stamps from HMS Badger, HMS Pinafore, Harwich Port and RN Chatham to name but a few. 

Then there are the jollier items. A touring map of Scotland from a holiday that’s recorded in the logbook in the pre Armstrong-Siddeley days. An undated black and white photograph of CUR 890 in its earlier days. An unused 1930s first aid kit complete with unopened bottle of bromine. A first aid manual explaining how to use the contents.

Then there are two complete Senior Service cigarette card albums, no doubt completed over a contemplative cigarette as Cdr Heath travelled the UK’s naval bases to impart his expertise. 

Not enough for you? Well, how about some commemorative medals from the coronations of both King Edward VIII and King George VI? Then there’s the later history, the papers relating to the car’s resurrection in the 1970s, its ongoing maintenance up to the early Nineties, and its recommissioning since. 

It’s a car with so much history, so much charm and so much social importance that it needs to be loved and its story shared as widely as possible.

Years of careful maintenance mean that CUR 890 survived brilliantly well, and while you can see that the body has been painted in the past and that the chassis has been welded previously, it is still in remarkably smart and presentable condition.

What it isn’t is a concours show car. It never will be – or if it becomes one then whoever turns it into one is going to be tearing apart a piece of irreplaceable British history. This car really doesn’t deserve that. It’s absolutely perfect as it is, complete with minor dents on its bumpers, slight ripples on its running boards and minor marks on its chrome. Every single one of those tells a story in the same way that Cdr Heath’s notebooks do. 

This is a lovely, good-looking and very straight and honest car that oozes charm from every curve and corner.

If you buy this car then whatever you do, do not change a thing inside. The green leather is careworn in places, but not damaged or cracked. The trim around the rear window isn’t perfect, there are various marks and scuffs. 

Don’t let that put you off. For starters, none of these is major. Of greater importance is that they lend the car a patina that should not and cannot be destroyed. This car has an amazing history. The seat you sit in to drive it is the very same seat that Cdr Heat sat in to drive home on that fateful night back in 1944. 

The pedals, the gear levers, the light switches, the push starter button – they’re all original. They’re all the very parts that were on the car when it left the Longbridge production line in 1937 and went on to record history itself.

The vendor of this car is an experienced and highly competent motor mechanic who is as happy working on huge V8s as he is small four-pot side-valve engines such as that found under the side-hinged bonnet of CUR 890. 

He recommissioned the car and serviced it, and it runs extremely sweetly with no obvious faults. He reports that it is surprisingly driveable, with a four-speed transmission, light steering and a good driving position.

Even so, we’re not sure we’d want to drive it across Exmoor with no lights on during both a storm and a blackout.

There are other Austin 10s on the market and there are probably shinier and more immaculate Austin 10s on the market, but there are no Austin 10s on the market that have a story like this car’s. Indeed, there are no cars on the market with a story anything like this one’s. 

This is a car that must never, ever be changed. If you’re lucky enough to own it for a while, it needs to be kept exactly as it is and its story preserved, told and handed down through generations beyond those that will read this advert. We owe it to Cdr Heath and his comrades. Thank you for your service. 

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