History Loses a Scholar and Mentor

Malcolm Jeal, automotive historian, writer and editor, died Tuesday, 5th July 2016 after a brief illness. He was 72. Although only occasionally a credited contributor to PreWarCar, his influence and assistance were more deeply felt behind the scenes, through his scholarship and knowledge of the world’s very early motor industries. 

            Born 20th February 1944 in Gosport, Hampshire, UK, he was a graduate of Durham University and was a schoolteacher for 20 years. Over a lifetime of career changes, he became a builder specialising in loft conversions, a restorer of historic cars and most recently researcher, journalist and consultant on motoring history. He was editor of The Gazette of the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain, and headed the Club’s Dating Committee for many years. To the latter task he brought scholarship and unfailing honesty, in a field where egos often run high. His high standards were widely recognized in the auction industry, where he consulted for several companies. He also served as commentator for the London-to-Brighton run for a number of years, and edited the British magazine The Automobile in the late 1980s.

            A long-time member of the Society of Automotive Historians, he was named a Friend of Automotive History, the organisation’s highest honour, in 2007. He served as chairman of the Society of Automotive Historians in Britain, now an independent group, for four years and conceived and edited its annual scholarly publication, Aspects of Motoring History, for ten issues. In recent years he served as an organiser of the annual historians’ dinner sponsored by SAH and SAHB at the time of Rétromobile in Paris. 

            Although he appreciated the entire epoch of the automobile, he was particularly drawn to the early years of the industry, especially in France. Following the pioneering studies conducted by the renowned historian James Laux, he spent much time on the Continent in company and institutional archives, and collected many of the journals of the pre-1910 period. With his understanding of technology and hands-on experience he could analyze early cars in a way that academic historians frequently cannot, and was able to dissemble many a story surrounding built-up cars that posed as forgotten makes.

            His assistance to fellow historians and researchers was unceasing and gladly given. A mere question would typically be answered quickly, and substantiated with copies of pertinent pages from his extensive library of early periodicals. His absence will be most deeply felt. I speak for many PreWarCar readers and contributors in expressing our sincere sympathies to his widow Eunice.                                          

Kit Foster

 

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