David Roscoe
David Roscoe
There can be few things more joyous on a summer’s day than zipping through the Devon lanes in an open-top car – and when that car is a 1929 Ford Model A the fun is even greater!
“My motto is never grow up,” explained David Roscoe, car enthusiast, film maker, model aircraft pilot and former racing yachtsman, who at 79 is doing a great job of keeping old age at bay.
From the home he shares with his wife Diana at Kingswear, David has a magnificent view of Dartmouth and the Dart. He also has a shed with a view, stacked with model aeroplanes in various states of repair, and cans of film of such racing greats as Stirling Moss and Barry Sheen. In two garages live the beautiful Ford and a 1929 Morris sports car.
“There are two types of car enthusiasts – performers and polishers,” David explained. “I am a performer, so I drive the cars regularly and take them to races and hill climbs, or use them for general posing. They are there to be driven.”
David has raced cars throughout his life. Unenthusiastic about school, he admits to having been “more interested in holes in the ground, bicycles and model planes than knowledge.” He escaped from the family insurance firm (“the first Roscoe to escape in 100 years”) and after National Service spent with guns and tanks in the Army, he persuaded his way into a career in PR and marketing, three years before the advent of commercial television.
“I went to the London Press Exchange to be told that they were only taking on graduates. So I asked how they would know if their plan had worked? They were a bit baffled, so I asked if they wanted to take on someone who was not a graduate, so they could see if graduates really did perform better. I received a letter saying ‘It seems you are being offered a job with the LPE,’ I stayed for nine years and did better than all those who’d been at university because I had everything to prove.”
Always interested in cars and going fast, David switched companies and worked for clients such as Castrol, British Leyland and Rolls Royce, becoming a director before joining Rolls Royce as head of public relations for Rolls Royce Motor Cars worldwide. He said: “I turned Rolls Royce from a company who asked why, to a company who asked why not. It went from the habitat of the establishment to the reward for the successful. People say it must have been an easy job because Rolls Royce has such an excellent reputation – well you have to ask why that is…”
David’s racing, in a 1950s Cooper, was put on hold when he and Diana had their sons, Hamish and Adam. The car was sold and with the money David bought a cine camera. He filmed hundreds of races and the people at the trackside. Today his films are increasingly in demand from programmes such as Top Gear. In his study is a huge library of films all now transferred onto DVD. It wasn’t long before he was back on the track himself, however, this time behind the wheel of a 1930s Alvis.
Born in Leeds in 1931, with older and younger sisters, David moved to Windy Corner in Torbay when he was three as his father expanded the insurance company into the South West. There were just six houses clustered around the junction in those days. The Roscoes moved on to Guildford two years later, but their love affair with South Devon had begun and family holidays were spent here every year. When the War started Mr Roscoe senior bought a little house at Three Beaches, just in case the one in Guildford was bombed, and eventually David’s parents retired to just above the Higher Ferry at Kingswear.
“By this time I had left Rolls Royce and become a head office man for Vickers in London which I hated. When your hobbies are sailing, driving old cars and flying model planes it’s no good living in a flat. So we moved to this house, Crew Cottage, just along the road from my parents’ house, and I did a weekly commute. I spent less time on the train than my secretary who came in every day from Kent. And when I was at home I could do ocean racing out of the Royal Dart, or race my cars.
“We have five grandchildren, the eldest of whom are now adults, which is somewhat ageing. But I don’t intend giving up just yet - life is all about having fun!”
First published July 2010 By the Dart