FARINA 60 HONOURS GEORGE CROSS HERO
Former constable nicked criminals in a Wolseley 6/110
The Cambridge- Oxford Owners’ Club (C- OOC) paid tribute to the service of ex-Police constable Tony Gledhill GC during its Farina 60 birthday celebrations.
Hosted by Derbyshire’s Stanwick Junction Museum preserved railway over the 20-21 July weekend, Constable Gledhill was reunited with a Wolseley 6/110 police car – and did two laps of the Farina 60 car park ‘on blues and twos’.
He received the George Cross in recognition of his bravery on 25 August 1966. Gledhill apprehended
four South London criminals in a Wolseley 6/110, after chasing it with another 6/110. Both Farinas were in fact police cars; the first, a manual, was stolen by the gang after Gledhill and his co-driver, PC McFall, cornered them. The criminals escaped by holding a gun to Gledhill’s head, and made off with his police car. Gledhill and McFall, in another force 6/110, gave chase under gunfire, eventually collaring the bandits.
Recounting this incident in a talk rounded off a packed weekend for the C- OOC. ‘Meeting this remarkable man and reuniting him with a Wolseley 6/110 police car, a vehicle he obviously still has great affection for, was both humbling and fascinating; it proves classic cars are as much about the people and memories they stir as the engineering,’ said a C- OOC spokesperson.
Other activities included technical seminars, a slot car tournament using model Austin Cambridges and a period dress competition. Showgoers were also visited by a banger-raced Farina towed behind member Ian Lee’s Austin A110 Westminster MkII.