St John Ratcliffe Stewart "Jock" Horsfall (31 July 1910 – 20 August 1949) was a British

motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

driver.

1920-30s

In his early 20s, Horsfall began competing in British club level events and he won ''The Motor Trophy'' at the MCC's Llandudno Trials in 1934, driving a Wolseley. During the late 1930s, he became a familiar and popular competitor at British and European motor races, usually driving his

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...

2-litre Speed Model, nicknamed the 'Black Car', or

Tony Rolt Major Anthony Peter Roylance Rolt, MC & Bar, (16 October 1918 – 6 February 2008) was a British racing driver, soldier and engineer. A war hero, Rolt maintained a long connection with the sport, albeit behind the scenes. The Ferguson 4WD p ...

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

. Driving the 'Black Car', Horsfall won the 1938 Leinster Trophy race at

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. In the same year the pairing took victory in the 2-litre class and finished second overall in the

RAC Tourist Trophy The RAC Tourist Trophy (sometimes called the International Tourist Trophy) is a motor racing award presented by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) to the overall victor of a motor race in the United Kingdom. Established in 1905, it is the world's ol ...

race at

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

, beating the more fancied BMW works cars.

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was employed as a specialist driver for the British

secret service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

. As part of his duties he was involved in

Operation Mincemeat Operation Mincemeat was a successful British deception operation of the Second World War to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. Two members of British intelligence obtained the body of Glyndwr Michael, a tramp who died from eating ...

, a famously successful disinformation plot to convince the Germans that the Allies planned to land in Greece rather than Italy. This operation was featured in the 1956 film ''

The Man Who Never Was ''The Man Who Never Was'' is a 1956 British espionage thriller film produced by André Hakim and directed by Ronald Neame. It stars Clifton Webb and Gloria Grahame and features Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin and Stephen Boyd. It is based ...

'' and the 2021 film ''

''.

1940s

In 1945 he acquired a second Speed Model, registration EML129, which initially was comprehensively developed into a "Formula B" car running on

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is a ...

. Returning to the track following the cessation of hostilities, Horsfall drove the 'Black Car' to victory in the 1946 Belgian Sports Car Grand Prix. In 1948 he and co-driver Leslie Johnson won the

Spa 24 Hours The 24 Hours of Spa is an Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies. History The Spa 24 Hours was ...

race, sharing a prototype

Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports The Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports was a sports car sold by Aston Martin from 1948 to 1950. It was the first product of the company under David Brown's ownership and is retrospectively known as the DB1. The car debuted at the 1948 London Motor Sh ...

car. Also in 1948 he entered EML129 in the Hill Climb at Luton Hoo and posted the fastest time for an unsupercharged 2 litre car. In 1949 he converted EML129 back into sports car specification and entered the Spa 24 hour race as a privateer. While he had

Paul Frère Paul Frère (30 January 1917 – 23 February 2008) was a racing driver and journalist from Belgium. He participated in eleven World Championship Formula One Grands Prix debuting on 22 June 1952 and achieving one podium finish with a total of elev ...

as a co-driver (who had not driven the car at all), he chose to drive the car for the entire 24 hours single-handed. He finished the race 2nd in class and 4th overall and completed a longer distance than in the works car the year before. Many commentators have considered this to be one of his finest achievements. The car from then onwards became known as the 'Spa Special'.

Death

St John Horsfall was killed in an accident while driving an ERA racing car in the 1949 BRDC International Trophy race at

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Towcester, Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 ...

. Having finished in sixth place in the first 20-lap heat, on lap 13 of the 30-lap final race he clipped a straw bale at Stowe Corner and the car rolled. Unfortunately for Horsfall, he was trapped in the car as it rolled and his resultant injuries proved fatal.

Legacy

The Aston Martin Owners Club holds an annual race meeting in his memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horsfall, St. John 1910 births 1949 deaths 24 Hours of Spa drivers Aston Martin British people of World War II British racing drivers Operation Mincemeat