Kaiser never did receive his two Old Spots
IN summer 1914, with boiling unrest in the Balkans, lurking revolution in Russia, arch rivalry between Britain and the Fatherland, and Europe poised at the threshold of the most destructive conflict in the history of mankind, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, ordered and paid for two Gloucester Old Spot pigs from a farmer in Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
Events intervened, most notably outbreak of the 1914 to 1918 Great War and Wilhelm never did get his pigs. Neither did he get his money back.
Instead he abdicated and lived out the rest of his life in Holland where he passed his time cutting down trees.
The former Emperor and King of Prussia wasn’t one to travel lightly.
He went into exile in a train of seven carriages, followed later by a further 63 all filled with the kind of paraphernalia an ex-kaiser needed when ousted by his countryfolk.
In between felling elms, oaks and birches for no obvious reason, Wilhelm complained to anyone who would listen that he’d been betrayed by the German people, calling them “schweinbande”, a nation of pigs.
Perhaps this was an oblique reference to the Gloucester Old Spots he paid for but didn’t receive.
Another aristocrat who ordered, paid for, but never took possession of something from Gloucestershire was His Excellency The Maharaja Yashwant Rao Holkar of Indore (1908-1961).
In 1936 a prestigious commission from the fabulously wealthy and dapperly turned out Indian potentate dropped onto the welcome mat at the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company’s head office in Bristol Road.
The company was required to supply a coach for the Maharaja’s personal use.
Described at the time as the most luxurious railway carriage ever built and weighing in at 50 tons, the 68 feet long by 10 feet wide carriage was the largest that had ever been constructed in Britain and was made to run on five foot six inch gauge tracks.
The Swiss-german architect Eckart Muthesius, a chum of Yashwant’s from their time in Oxford was commissioned to design the Art Deco interior, which featured ornate marquetry panelling, chrome detailing, pink mirrors, an internal telephone system and air conditioning.
When the Gloucester firm completed its work the opulent conveyance was despatched to Southampton for shipment to the sub continent.
However, while it was en route, the unfortunate maharaja fell victim to a coup, so never had the chance to travel in his mobile palace.
However, his carriage was delivered and can still be seen in India to this day.
This was not the only transport of delight made in the city by the Gloucester Wagon Works for Indian Royalty.
The firm also made a carriage for a Maharaja who specified a system of bells that enabled him to summon the concubine of his choice from the mobile harem towed in a carriage
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behind.
Creating such super luxurious modes of transport was a long way from the company’s original purpose.
The Gloucester Railway and Wagon Company was established in 1860 to build coal wagons.
In 1862 the firm built Britain’s first iron wagon and later that decade the first export orders were received.
Among the earliest of these was one from Czar Nicholas I to manufacture rolling stock for Imperial Russian Railways.
The first batch of rolling stock was completed and had been in service for a time when the Gloucester firm received a request from the Russian railway authorities.
They asked that the type of grease being used to pack the bearings of the carriages be changed, as the vegetable based lubricant was being eaten by peasants causing the axles to seize up.