In October 1952, Dunfermline businessman Jim Stewart bought a new Bentley chassis and commissioned Dunfermline coachbuilder John Jackson & Sons to build a shooting-brake body on the vehicle.
The Rolls/Bentley Company was not altogether happy with this arrangement as Jackson was not on their preferred list of coachbuilders.
However, Mr Stewart insisted that Jackson carry out the work and Rolls/Bentley eventually agreed, subject to them carrying out a thorough inspection of the finished vehicle prior to it going on the road.
For the next seven months coachbuilder Jimmy Allison worked on building the bodywork of the shooting-brake at Jackson’s Pittencrieff Street premises, until it was ready for the road in May 1953.
Two representatives from Rolls/Bentley then arrived in Dunfermline from Crewe and carried out a painstaking examination of the vehicle, including a 50-mile road test.
The examiners were so impressed with the quality of work carried out on the vehicle at Jackson’s that it was “passed without fault” and Jimmy Allison was highly commended on his coach-building ability.
Such was the quality of the work carried out in 1953 that the Bentley, still owned by the Stewart family, remains in first class condition, having covered well over 200,000 miles, and having appeared several times on television.
During the recent gathering at Fife Historic Vehicle Club’s Festival of Historic Transport at the Scottish Bus Museum, Lathalmond, coachbuilder Jimmy Allison, now in his 91st year, was reunited with his old friend the Bentley, in the company of its current owner Allan Stewart.