Orkney Image Library

The registration records in the Orkney Archives reveal that this blue Rolls-Royce 20hp was supplied new in March 1926 by Rossleigh Ltd of Edinburgh to Mrs Jeannie Lawrie of Hobbister House. She was a sister of Walter Grant of the Highland Park, and of Mrs Louisa Haydon of Lynnfield House (whose husband was also a partner in the distillery). For most of the 1930s the car was only licensed in the summer, and was not licensed at all during the Second World War. In 1945 however it was sold to J. Macarthur & Co, Motor Hirers, Edinburgh, who painted it black and used it as a hackney vehicle until 1954. It then went through three private owners in quick succession. The last record is of its being relicensed in Edinburgh in December 1955. Whatever became of it, it is not now on the DVLA computer. The registration number, BS141, was originally allocated to a Ford Model T two-seater tourer in 1912, but it was scrapped in Sheffield in 1925. Curiously, the Ford's registration file is annotated "This number has been given to Mrs Helen Lees Low." She was another sister of Walter Grant, and the widow of John Lees Low, solicitor. The photo archive has another good picture of the Rolls standing in Harbour Street.