From RROCA-info

THE PUMPKIN

1928 Phantom 1 convertible. Chassis No.42A L. Engine No. KS 55.

George Sevenoaks, 1971

To try and write a history of any car, especially when it is now some forty-three years old, is no mean task and its early history would be from memory only, except that we are extremely fortunate to have in N.S.W. the one and only Bert Ward. His wonderful memory and fund of information, which he has kept in log books, is made available to owners and members alike.

The car was delivered in London in August 1928 to Mr. E.D.S. Paul, The then Managing Director of Schweppes Ltd. - the soft drink manufacturers. The body, or coachwork as the purist would say, is by Barker to the special design of Mr. Paul who already owned a 1921 Silver Ghost 69TE with the same type of coachwork, but by Cunard (this car now owned by Frank Meek of Ryde N.S.W.) The coachwork is quite unusual as it is a true convertible. The hard top can be removed by undoing a number of wing nuts and then attaching a chain block to a large iron ring on the top of the roof and leave suspended. To do this the garage had to have a great ceiling height. The next move was to place the tourer hood on and this was done for the summer months. I cut the tourer hood in half and added the S Bars to make it a Landau and have never used the hardtop since.

The car was kept in England until 1936 during which time it was used for a considerable amount of continental touring, the speedometer having been graduated in kilometers as well as miles for this purpose.

Mr. Paul passed away during 1956 and the car was sold out of the Estate - the speedo was then showing 47,000 miles. The cars (The Pumpkin and the Silver Ghost) were to be sold by Auction but on arrival at the sale it was announced that they had been sold privately. A very well known Sydney journalist had bought The Pumpkin. I am sorry to say that he was not a very good owner and in no time she was a sad and sorry sight. Luckily he did no harm to the motor and that was the only reason that I went to the trouble of restoring it when I traded it in on a 1934 PI I Saloon in 1957. Every guard was buckled, running boards did not exist, the upholstery looked as if it had been in a threshing machine together with the rest of the car, yet the speedo only read 57,000. The duco firm that I took it to would not spray it, because they thought I was round the bend a bit (wanting to spend money on that heap) but the worst was to come when they asked, "0.K. then what colour do you want?" and then another half an hour to convince them. Oh the thought of it (Yellow) sure must be mad. The only reason for the colour was that if Lord Lonsdale could paint his Rolls-Royce yellow in 1923 in England I could do it also.

It has stood the test of time and has now done 65,000 miles and has won more Concours than any make of car in Australia (but that Jones chap in Victoria is catching up slowly!). The Silver Lady or The Pumpkin could have a book written about them and an interesting one at that, and that applies to each and every one of the Club Members cars. The most asked question is "What is it worth?" but perhaps you would not believe the offers that I have had so I will leave it unsaid.