Sydney Charles Houghton Davis was born a Victorian and grew up in an Edwardian time. His paternal grandfather, a well-known artist, would order his beer by blowing a coach horn in the direction of the local hostelry thereby summoning the landlord to deliver his ale.
As he ventured to prep school, he encountered fellow pupil Malcolm Campbell, himself a future Aston Martin owner. Sammy describes him on one of his first encounters with him as being “very Scottish with his pocket money”.
From prep school he, inexplicably to him, was accepted at Westminster School and then proceeded to The Slade School of Art where he was lucky to encounter an art master who taught him his craft. Although he enjoyed his art, he could see no way to earn his living from it. He put the problem to his father who arranged an interview for him with none other than Sir Edward Manville, Chairman of The Daimler Motor Car Co. Sammy was taken on as an apprentice and his professional career was underway.
Gordon Crosby, the great motoring artist, worked alongside Sammy at Daimler and one day he informed Sammy that he had been offered a job at The Autocar as an artist-illustrator at a much higher remuneration than Daimler were paying. Gordon duly left and a month later Sammy was offered a similar job for The Automobile Engineer magazine. Both The Autocar (Britain’s oldest motoring magazine) and The Automobile Engineer were owned by the same publisher. Sammy had a difficult decision to make as there were reasonable prospects at Daimler, although the magazine offer was at a higher remuneration much as Gordon had been offered. In the end he took the journalistic route because he felt Daimler had lost their way design wise and his friend Molly Swain advised him to grasp the opportunity.
Brooklands was to prove both a diversion and a professional interest. On the diversionary front Sammy was able to race a Douglas motorcycle he had acquired and tuned. On the professional front Brooklands enabled him to test a great deal of cars, the names of many of which are long defunct.
In 1921 S.F. Edge asked Sammy if he would join the works AC team to mount an attack on the 2-litre class records at Brooklands. This was a 2-by-12-hour record better known as the Double-Twelve. The team didn’t achieve all the records they were after due to a broken con rod, but they still managed 18 records. By now he was a respected racer and S.F. Edge asked him to join the team for the new Junior Car Club 200-mile race at Brooklands. The car proved to be problematic but eventually made it to the finish.
Better luck came the following year in May in a historic run with an Aston Martin. His fellow drivers were Kensington Moir and Clive Gallop. Again this was a run to set records with a 1500cc engine and the first ever light car to set records. The Aston Martin ‘Bunny’ performed admirably, breaking 10 world records and 22 class records. Louis Zborowski was another character that Sammy met at Brooklands and another man famous in the annals of Aston Martin history. Sammy was asked by Louis to ride as his mechanic in the 1924 French Grand Prix in a Miller.
Sammy was fortunate that his old friend Louis Coatalen gave him the opportunity to test the 350 bhp land speed record Sunbeam. This in turn resulted in the offer of a drive at Le Mans with the works Sunbeam team and sharing a car with Jean Chassagne. They finished in second place overall, an extremely satisfying result, certainly for Sammy as this was his first international road race.
In 1926 Sammy was back with his old pal from his Naval aeronautical days, W.O. Bentley, and firmly ensconced in the Bentley Fold. He was down to share a car, Bentley No. 7, with Dr J.D. Benjafield. In 1927 Sammy was teamed again with Dr Benjafield in the previous year’s car, Old No. 7, but numbered ‘3’ for this event. During Benjy’s last stint he was able to build up a lead sufficient enough to be able to stop at the pits a last time to sportingly let Sammy bring the car home in first place. A magnificent effort by both drivers in the most difficult of circumstances.
On the working front Sammy was now Sporting Editor of The Autocar, a post he was to retain until eventual retirement. He was now a much-celebrated racing driver and in great demand. Winning Le Mans back then was a huge sporting achievement, far more so than today, and carried much kudos both for the manufacturer as well as for the driver.
The year 1928 saw Sammy back at Le Mans, this time with a works Alvis. The cars were a new design of front wheel drive with four-wheel independent suspension and like all new designs were not without problems. In the race the cars behaved impeccably apart from the fuel tank not picking up the last gallon of fuel due to their shape. Sammy finished second in class behind the other works Alvis and beating the Bertelli Aston Martins. Whilst Sammy undoubtedly knew Bert Bertelli, maybe the camaraderie of Le Mans brought them even closer and resulted in the commission to design a new Aston Martin badge at a later stage. Sammy of course designed the winged Aston Martin badge that is so beloved by us all today.
Sammy was entered again in the Brooklands Double-Twelve but this time in a works Bentley shared with Gunter and riding mechanic Head. It was a fraught race against fierce competition from works Alfa Romeos. Another close-run second place for Sammy.
Later in 1929 Sammy was off to Dublin for the First Irish Grand Prix in Phoenix Park. Sammy was entered in a Lea Francis. Further competition came in 1929 with the Tourist Trophy at Ards. Sammy again was entered in a Riley Brooklands with John Cobb in the same team. The team were up against the works Mercedes of Rudolf Carriciola and Otto Merz. Towards the end of 1929 at the last minute Sammy was persuaded into one of the big Bentleys sharing with Clive Dunfee. This was a wild ride for the 500 race at Brooklands as the fast cars would get airborne and come crashing down giving you a shaking. Sammy and Clive made the fastest average but didn’t win on account of the handicap formula.
Le Mans 1930 and Sammy was again driving a Bentley but this time sharing duties with Dick Watney and Clive Dunfee. Bentley’s main competition was to come from works Mercedes and hares were needed to try and break the opposition. This was down to Tim Birkin in one of the blower Bentleys and Sammy in his non-blown six-cylinder car.
In 1932 during recovery from an accident in an Invicta the previous year he was Team Manager of the Aston Martin Team for Le Mans with Bertelli and Driscoll as drivers. The team won The Rudge Whitworth Cup. This cup was originally a triennial award for the car that covered the greatest distance 3 years running. Eventually Le Mans was based on an overall winner each year and The Rudge Whitworth by the time Aston won it was based on a handicap formula.
Sammy’s first drive after his accident was the 1933 Le Mans with Bertelli as co-driver. That year was a three-car team with Mort Goodall and Bill Wisdom sharing an earlier Aston and Driscoll and Penn Hughes also driving a Le Mans Aston. Sammy finished seventh overall and the Driscoll car fifth overall but second on formula. This event marked Sammy’s last event as a driver and from this point on his motorsport involvement would consist of team management. Sammy had enjoyed a good run and after all he was in his mid-40s now.
Sammy founded the AMOC along with Mort Goodall in 1935 and was its first Vice President. On its reformation following the Second World War he became the first post-war President. Of course, Sammy was still sports editor for The Autocar under his pen name Casque. Sammy was now also writing books on motorsport so with his involvement with the VCC and the AMOC he was kept busy. I should also point out that Sammy was active in the BRDC and received a Gold Star for his racing efforts. He was instrumental with the Junior Car Club which eventually became the BRSCC and last but not least on the competition committee of the RAC.
Sammy had parted company with his first wife as they had gone their separate ways during the war, but he was fortunate that in 1933 she had borne him a son, Colin. Colin himself went on to race at Le Mans with some success. After the war Sammy went back to civilian duties as editor of The Autocar. He was to continue writing as Casque until a new editor brought in from a newspaper wanted people to use their own names. Change is not always for the best and this editor created mayhem in the short time he was there. Lord Ilffe who owned the magazine realised his error and the errant editor was replaced.
Retirement was looming and in 1950 Sammy was presented with the inevitable clock to mark his retirement. This wasn’t really retirement for Sammy as he had another 30 years ahead of him. From this point he worked as a freelance, painting and writing articles and books. Don’t forget he was President of the AMOC at this time.
Following his divorce, Sammy quite by chance met his future second wife Susie who was considerably younger than him and in fact younger than his son but for Sammy it was marital bliss. Sammy enjoyed camping trips to Le Mans with her in their Frog Eye Sprite. Sammy and Susie’s last years were spent together in the tiny annexe of Sutton Lodge Guildford where Sammy died on the occasion of his 94th birthday on 9 January 1981 due to a house fire. Some say it was caused by his ever-smouldering pipe and others say it was an overturned paraffin heater. Whatever the cause Britain lost one of its finest sportsmen and the AMOC lost its first pre-war Vice President and its first post-war President.