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Sir Gawaine Baillie, 7th Bt (8 March, 1934 - 21 December, 2003) was an amateur motor racing driver, engineer, industrialist, stamp collector, and the owner of the ancient estate surrounding Leeds Castle, the ancient fortress in Kent. After his death, it was discovered that he had amassed, almost entirely in secret, one of the greatest collections of stamps of the former British Empire.
Early Life
Sir Gawaine was raised at Leeds castle, the ancient fortress in Kent that his mother Lady Olive Baillie had bought with her sister Dorothy Paget in 1928. At age five, after World War II broke out, Baillie went to live with his American cousins, the Whitney family. Soon after returning to England, his father died, and he succeeded to the family title, becoming 7th Baronet of Polkemmet, Linlithgowshire on January 8, 1947.
Following education at Eton and Cambridge, he created HPC Engineering in 1959, a company which specializes in sub-contract manufacturing for the automotive, aerospace, computer, defence, medical and machine tool industries. He served as chairman and managing director of the company for the rest of his life. He was also an elite amateur race car driver, competing at the highest professional level with such legendary figures as Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn and Jackie Stewart, participating in numerous championships,. After retiring from motor racing, he returned to his boyhood hobby of collecting stamps.
Racing Career
- 1956
Sir Gawaine first race with a Lotus Eleven
- 1957
Continued with The Lotus Eleven into 1957
- 1958
During 1958 he drove as number two to Tommy Sopwith jr in his Equipe Endeavour team driving Jaguar Mark 1 3.4 he finished behind Tommy for most of the year wining at Mallory Park in May when Tommy had a puncture. On Boxing Day 1958 he carried off the John Davy Trophy for saloon cars before a crowd of 30,000 at Brands Hatch.
- 1959
He was teamed with Ivor Bueb in team with after Tommy retired In the Jaguar, Sir Gawaine finished third in each of that year's big spring meetings at Goodwood, Aintree and Silverstone, and won a Goodwood ,Brands Hatch and a Snetterton round of saloon car championship.
- 1960
He Raced with his own Lotus Elite with Mike Parkes at Le-Mans , Nurburgring 1000km and the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood in sports car races plus a couple of saloon car outings during the year with a new Jaguar Mark II 3.8 winning at Snetterton
- 1961
He won the first round of the British Championship plus with his co-driver, Peter Jopp, were runners-up in the touring car category of the Tour de France, An event that lasted ten days with six circuit races, nine mountain climbs and two hours' racing round the public roads of Corsica.
- 1962
He bought a Jaguar E Type Lightweight and continued to campaign the Jaguar saloon, he crashed during the this years Tour de France. His Jaguar leaving the road and plunging 100 feet down a ravine, and Sir Gawaine was taken to hospital with multiple cuts to the face.
- 1963
He ordered an American Ford Galaxie with a 7.0 V8 engine although he raced a Ford Cortina GT Mark I until its arrival a little later in the season .His best result being 2nd at the British Grand Prix support race at Silverstone.
- 1964
He raced this on into 1964 His best result being third behind two World Champions, Jack Brabham and Jim Clark, at SnettertonI
In November 1964 Sir Gawaine took his Galaxie to Australian co driving with champion Lex Davison in Melbourne's Sandown Park 6-Hours, only for Davidson to crash the giant car and hang precariously through the fence over a dam at Peter's Corner for much of the race.Three months later while still in Australia Sir Gawaine finished second in the Sandown Park International meeting at which Davison was killed; and a week later he travelled to Longford, Tasmania, regarded at the time as the world's most frightening road circuit, where he won outright.
- 1965
Sir Gawaine bought a more nimble 4.7-litre Ford Mustang V8 for the 1965 British Championship season, with the help of Alan Mann Racing to run the car it proved his most successful yet - with two second places and a third. Finishing runner up to in Class to his team mate Roy Pierpoint who was also the overall champion
- 1966
He moved to a Ford Falcon Sprint for 1966 using his companies compressor specialty he fitted it with a Paxton supercharger it proved slightly trouble some although he won his class in the British Grand Prix support race
In 1967 he used his Ford Falcon as an entrant of Australian Brian Muir
Stamp Collecting
Sir Gawaine's goal in stamp collecting was to build a comprehensive collection of postage stamps from Great Britain and the British Empire, starting with the earliest issues of Queen Victoria through to the present. Sir Gawaine was interested in only the most perfectly preserved stamps and his collection is distinguished from others of comparable scale by his exacting standards. He mastered at least ten areas of specialisation and acquired over 100,000 stamps, of the highest quality including a copy of the scarce Edward VII 2d Tyrian plum. The collection was considered the most comprehensive of its kind and, when Sotheby's put the stamps up for auction, after his death, the collection was described as the most important to be sold in more than 50 years. Sotheby's divided the stamps into ten separate auctions, the first nine of which exceeded the initial estimate of £11m, by more than £4m.
References
- "Sir Gawaine Baillie, Bt". Obituaries. Telegraph.co.uk. 2004-01-02. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- Adams, Susan (2004-09-14). "Lots Of Stamps". What's Hot Now. Forbes.com. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- Lundy, Darryl. "A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe: Person Page - 12893". ThePeerage.com. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- "The Seventh Sale of Stamps from the Collection of Sir Gawaine Baillie" (pdf). Press release. Sotheby's. 2006-02-01. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- ^ "Stamp collection raises millions". BBC. 2004-10-01.
- "The Philatelic Collection formed by Sir Gawaine Baillie, Bt". News Stories. Worldcollectorsnet.com. 2004-09-25. Retrieved 2008-06-30.