The Holland family seem to have an affinity with Australia - my aunt told me that one of her great uncles was deported there for sheep stealing, and Holland's son and one of his grandsons now live in the Sydney area. This post was written by Holland's son, another James, shown in this sketch.
Holland was an enthusiastic if at times erratic motorist, whose driver's license dated from the times before such trivialities as passing a test inhibited prospective knights of the road. His first car was a machine of dubious provenance held together by string and sealing wax, and nicknamed by the various brave passengers willing to travel with him as "The Flying Bedstead". Somehow or the other, he managed to persuade this vehicle to run from London to Wiltshire on occasions.
His pride and joy, however, and the vehicle that I remember most fondly and clearly, was a 1929 cream and black Rolls Royce similar to ones featured in the film "The Yellow Rolls Royce". This wonderful car with its running boards, curious flip-out indicators and, of course, its Flying Lady figurehead was a thing of beauty, but was almost entirely impractical, living as we did at the time in the centre of London. The Rolls made its appearance on special occasions only for several years, spending the rest of its time in a garage waiting as often as not for spare parts and even tyres to be made specially for it.
When the family eventually moved to Kent, the Rolls came too and provided considerable interest and sometimes downright disbelief amongst ramblers walking down a country lane who suddenly spotted the car through a gate. I think though that my abiding memory of the Rolls came in the summer of 1968 in my last term at Preparatory School. On a beautiful summer's day I won half a dozen events at the School's Sports Day, and came out to the car park clutching my various cups to find half the boys at the school (and almost all of their fathers) clustered around the Rolls. Needless to say, they weren't there to admire my trophies!
The following sketches date from 1975 and were drawn from memory. Represented are the first 6 cars that Holland owned.
[six cars, sketches, water colour and ink, 1975, in a private collection - order of ownership down the page 1, 3, 5, 2, 4 and finally the Rolls as 6]
Shortly after my brother's notable victories at his Sports Day, the Rolls was sold to an American and with the proceeds my father bought a maroon Austin 1100 - a very practical car for a growing family, but lacking soul. He did not bother to sketch his later cars.